Arizona Basketball

Arizona splits road trip with victory against Oklahoma State, earning Lloyd 100th win

Caleb Love made four 3-pointers that helped lead to 27 points for the Arizona senior in the win over Oklahoma State (Arizona Athletics photo)

Tommy Lloyd earned win No. 100 in his brief Arizona career, but what matters more to him is the Wildcats moving past one of their worst performances in the loss at Texas Tech on Saturday to one of its best outings in the bounce-back 92-78 win at Oklahoma State on Tuesday night.

Arizona (12-6, 6-1 Big 12) is now 42-1 under Lloyd when scoring at least 90 points.

The Wildcats shot 56.1 percent from the field (32 of 57), 47 percent from 3-point range (10 of 25), and 78.3 percent from the free-throw line (18 of 23) in front of the sparse crowd at Gallagher-Iba Arena at Stillwater, Okla.

That hot shooting was in stark contrast to how Arizona finished its 70-54 loss at Texas Tech. The Wildcats missed their final 12 shots from the field and 15 of their last 16, without making a shot in the final 7:33.

Love finished with 27 points on 10-of-17 shooting from the field, 4 of 9 from beyond the arc after going 3 of 13 from the field and 0 of 5 from 3-point range against Texas Tech.

“We had some great meetings, some great team talks (after the loss to the Red Raiders),” Lloyd said in the 1290-AM postgame show. “Our guys love Caleb. We love Caleb and I hope our fans love Caleb the way he should be loved.

“He’s one of us. We’re going to hang with him because, you know, hey, not only is it the right thing to do because he’s a great dude, but he’s a hell of a player.”

Trey Townsend awoke from a monthlong slump, in which he failed to reach double-figure scoring in his seven previous games, finishing with 19 points on 6-of-7 shooting from the field while making all four of his free-throw attempts.

Jaden Bradley was steady with 12 points and four assists with two turnovers in a team-high 37 minutes.

Carter Bryant and Henri Veesaar provided the spark Arizona needed with Bryant doing his work in the first half and Veesaar in the second half.

Bryant had all nine of his points before halftime. He scored seven straight points for the Wildcats in one stretch, putting Arizona ahead 32-30 with 4:10 left.

Love converted six consecutive points on layups and Bryant made two free throws to give Arizona a 40-36 lead with 1:17 left in the half.

Arizona led 43-39 at halftime after Bradley’s 3-pointer at the buzzer.

The second half started with Love making a 3-pointer and Townsend a layup to increase the lead to 48-39.

After Oklahoma State cut the lead to 53-48 with 16:54 left, Love fueled an 8-0 run with two 3-pointers while Veesaar made two free throws.

Those were Veesaar’s first two points of the road trip. He finished with nine points against Oklahoma State, shooting 3 of 5 from the field. He missed his five field-goal attempts in a scoreless performance against Texas Tech.

Arizona led 61-48 with 15:11 left at that point.

Oklahoma State cut the lead to 68-59 with 10:25 remaining, but the Cowboys went without a made field goal over the next six minutes.

Arizona took an 85-66 lead with 5:36 remaining after Townsend converted a jumper and a 3-pointer in successive possessions.

The Wildcats had 16 assists while committing only eight turnovers.

They also outrebounded Oklahoma State 34-29, which contributed to the Wildcats scoring 38 points in the paint.

Lloyd’s 100 wins in his first 126 games ties his former mentor Mark Few of Gonzaga for the quickest to 100 wins in Division I hoops history.

Arizona returns to McKale Center on Saturday to play old Pac-12 foe Colorado at 1 p.m. The Buffaloes were 9-8 overall and 0-6 in the Big 12 entering Tuesday’s home game with BYU.

Comments
To Top