Arizona Basketball

Awaka, Townsend & Dell’Orso: No law firm just a solid trio for Arizona on Saturday afternoon

Arizona’s KJ Lewis used the perfect phrase for Arizona’s potential on Saturday afternoon: “sample size.”

Arizona provided a Costco-sized sample of what could happen for Arizona if the non-main characters step up in games.

To wit:

Trey Townsend had eight points on 4 for 7 shooting for eight points.

Tobe Awaka had 15 rebounds and eight points, with Colorado coach Tad Boyle saying he was the difference in the game.

Anthony Dell’Orso had a season-high 20 points on a career-high six 3-pointers. He went into the game averaging 8.7 points.

It was a case study in helping with chemistry. A little of this and a lot of that.

By my math, that’s 36 points of Arizona’s 78 in its 78-63 win over visiting Colorado for its seventh win the Big 12 Conference and 13th overall.

Tobe Awaka gets two of his eight points at McKale. (Photo courtesy of Arizona Athletics)

“Today was just a little sample size of the potential we’re trying to reach as a team,” said Lewis, when I asked how good this team could be if those three offered those numbers consistently. “It’s time to really tighten things up in January, it’s almost February.”

And soon the calendar will turn to March – and we all know, it all matters in March.

But first, Arizona will enjoy the victory given Iowa State comes to town on Monday.

But when those three – Awaka, Dell’Orso and Townsend – are on (and the others do what they usually do even Caleb Love who is often inconsistent) how good can UA be?

“This team can be really good,” Tommy Lloyd said, before transitioning into another topic.

Saturday, Arizona – at least in the second half – Arizona did, with so many good things happening. The offense flowed much better in the second half after UA found a way to get through Colorado’s zone. They attacked the basket and/or found ways to get a basket. UA went from shooting 38 percent from the floor to shooting 56.7 percent in the second half.

Problem solved.

It did help that Dell’Orso was Arizona’s sniper, hitting 7 of 11 3s in the game. His six 3s were the most by an Arizona player since Courtney Ramey hit eight against Stanford in February of 2023. And it’s the most made by an Arizona player at McKale since Kerr Kriisa made six against Montana State in December 2022.

https://twitter.com/ArizonaMBB/status/1883297394659598807

Whether it’s Dell’Orso being more confident or comfortable at Arizona is the question. He didn’t answer the question when asked. His answer was more like a shooter shoots and, well, he’s shooting – and they are making.

“Obviously I think this can be something that’s pretty normal,” he said, given he averaged 19.5 points per game at Campbell last year. “So, it’s not new stuff to me. They were sitting in the zone, that probably plays more into my specialty a little bit just from the outside. My teammates found me the right spots, and tonight I was able to knock them down.”

Colorado didn’t expect Dell’Orso to be so deadly, although he did something he rarely – if ever – does: went to a zone for most of the game. He tried – but eventually failed.

“He’s not supposed to get any up,” Boyle said of Dell’Orso. “He’s supposed to be run off the line.”

Instead, he was in a game where if he missed a shot, you were kind of surprised. He was that good. It was the second time he’s been like that here, given he hit 5 of 7 3s against Davidson this season.

“I’ve told Delly all along, you’ve got to stay locked in and ready, because there’s gonna be nights where I need you to be our leading scorer,” Lloyd said. “He was great. And then they kind of attacked him on defense, so then you end up a little bit stuck in between.

Do you keep him on for his offense, do you sub him out for his defense, and sometimes you just got to let a guy play through it a little bit. I think we were able to do that and he delivered. Delly gets all the credit for that one.”

Of course, he had help.

“Tobe’s a beast,” Lloyd said. “He was awesome on the glass. When you play a zone, one thing a zone is hard to do sometimes is block out. And obviously we know Tobe is a proficient rebounder, and I thought he really did a good job setting the tone early.”

And late, when Arizona needed it to pull away for the win.

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