Bennedict Mathurin’s 20 points leads No. 4 Arizona over Washington State

PULLMAN, Wash. (AP) — Bennedict Mathurin scored 20 points, Azuolas Tubelis added 15 and No. 4 Arizona pulled away in the second half for a 72-60 win over Washington State.

Arizona (21-2, 11-1 Pac-12) won its fifth straight and is off to its best start since the 2016-17 season. The Wildcats have won 16 of the last 17 against Washington State and used a big surge midway through the second half after the Cougars threatened.

Arizona shot 49% for the game, but had a key stretch making seven straight shots that saw a four-point lead balloon to 22 in a hurry. Mathurin had all 12 of his second-half points during Arizona’s decisive run.

Michael Flowers led the Cougars with 16 points, but shot just 7 of 19. Noah Williams came off the bench to score 10 points.

Arizona led by as many as 17 in the first half thanks to an early 13-0 run. But it was Arizona’s second-half run that finally put away the Cougars.

Washington State shot 26.5% in the first half, missed all 12 of its 3-point attempts and trailed 33-20 at the break.

But the Cougars started knocking down some perimeter shots early in the second half and pulled within 39-35. T.J. Bamba missed a layup attempt in transition that would have trimmed the deficit to two, but instead became the start of Arizona’s big run.

Arizona made its next seven shots as part of a 15-4 run. Mathurin later added consecutive 3-pointers and his breakaway dunk with 7:51 left gave the Wildcats a 64-42 lead.

The Cougars (14-8, 7-4 Pac-12) came in as the conference leader in 3-point percentage, but finished 8-for-20.

KEY INJURIES

Washington State’s Mouhamed Gueye exited with 7:13 left after suffering a left ankle injury. The freshman finished with nine points and five rebounds.

BIG PICTURE

Arizona: For the Wildcats, the final stretch doesn’t feature a ranked opponent and it will include four of the last seven games on their home floor. They’ll be looking to secure the Pac-12 regular-season title and gain momentum heading into the conference tournament.

UP NEXT

Arizona visits Washington on Saturday at 4 p.m.

Washington State hosts Arizona State on Saturday at 8 p.m. on ESPN 620 AM / 98.7 FM HD-2.