It was touted as the game of the year so far in the Pac 12 Conference on Saturday when the #8 Utah Utes visited the #10 Arizona Wildcats.
It ended as a very lopsided contest as the Wildcats ran away from the Runnin’ Utes 69-51.
Freshman Stanley Johnson poured in all 18 of his points in the second half to help break open a close game. Senior T.J. McConnell added 16 while Brandon Ashley scored 14 of his own.
McConnell’s defense on Utah guard Delon Wright helped limit the Utes’ star player to only 10 points - this after Wright scored seven early points that gave Utah an early lead in the desert.
Utah was led by Brandon Taylor’s 12 points. The Wildcats’ clamped down on defense and allowed the Utes to make only 39% of their shots. Arizona also won the costless throw war, finishing 16-24 from the charity stripe compared to just 10-14 for Utah.
Arizona entered the game as the proverbial underdog against a Utah team that had been nearly unbeatable of late. The Utes had rattled off seven consecutive wins after losing a nail-biter to Kansas on December 13. Since then, Utah had not allowed any opponent within 13 points and won its first four Pac-12 contests easily.
Such was not the case on Saturday.
Arizona coach Sean Miller recognized the importance of the game in light of its recent loss to conference foe Oregon State. A win over Colorado on Thursday had the Wildcats primed for the Utes.
"Maybe what we recognized today is that a team like that brought out the best in us," a much-pleased Miller said afterwards.
Johnson was held scoreless over the first 20 minutes but rallied to score his 18 points during a second half that saw the Wildcats assert their dominance over a reeling Utah team. Both Johnson and Ashley contributed rim-rattling dunks over the game’s final minutes that punctuated Arizona’s win - and its unwillingness to give up its Pac-12 reign just yet.
The Wildcats improve to 16-2 (4-1 in Pac-12 play), while the Utes drop just their third game of the year (14-3) and stay tied with Arizona and Stanford atop the conference standings. Arizona travels to Palo Alto on to face the Cardinal on Thursday night. Utah returns to Salt Lake City and will host Washington State on Wednesday.