Cat Tracks: UA survives a scare from Stanford
Feb 7, 2013, 4:29 AM | Updated: 7:46 am
Sure, you could read the box score and know who won, but we all know that won’t tell you everything that happened in a basketball game. So, we give you ‘Cat Tracks’, providing you with the analysis, quotes and notes from Arizona’s February 6 win against Stanford. Arizona 73, Stanford 66.
The Good:
Mark Lyons had his best offensive game in an Arizona uniform (25 points and six assists), Solomon Hill (23 points and six rebounds) hit several clutch free throws down the stretch and No. 7 UA survived a back-and-forth game against Stanford 73-66.
With the win, the Cats became the first team in the Pac-12 conference to reach 20 wins on the season.
The Bad:
Despite the seven-point victory, the Cats were highly-ineffective from three-point range (6-of-20) and received very little production out of their freshmen big men Brandon Ashley and Kaleb Tarczewski (seven points on 2-of-9 shooting).
Ashley also had his struggles defensively against Dwight Powell, Stanford’s physical power forward. Powell was efficient from the field (7-of-14) and also attempted 11 shots from the charity stripe. It wasn’t all on Ashley though. With Ashley in foul trouble throughout, sophomore Angelo Chol was assigned to guard Powell during several stretches, and he too showed little resistance against the Cardinal’s leading scorer.
Noted:
• Wednesday marked the 40th birthday of the McKale Center. The Wildcats have built up quite a home court advantage in 40 years, going 517-101.
• Kaleb Tarczewski’s poor performance snapped a three-game double-double streak dating back to the team’s win at ASU.
• Arizona and Stanford were the only two teams to play in the Pac-12 Wednesday, and with the one-night advantage the Wildcats (8-2 in conference play) moved ahead of Oregon (7-2 in conference play) atop the Pac-12 standings by percentage points.
Coming Up Next:
The Wildcats will conclude their two-game homestand against the Bay Area schools Saturday against California. The game is scheduled to tip-off at 5:00 p.m.
