Arizona had five scorers in double figures led by 16 points each by Jaden Bradley and Caleb Love — both of whom scored most of their points on drives to the basket — in the No. 20 Wildcats’ 82-73 victory Saturday night over No. 13 Texas Tech at McKale Center.
The Wildcats (17-6, 11-1 Big 12) extended their winning streak to six games since they lost at Texas Tech last month.
The Red Raiders (18-5, 9-3) had their nation’s longest winning streak of 11 games snapped.
Henri Veesaar had 15 points and eight rebounds and KJ Lewis 15 points and six rebounds.
Tobe Awaka added 14 points and 11 rebounds.
“We’ve been talking a lot about habits; you want to practice your habits in pressure moments,” Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said. “It’s a really cool thing to be able to do. We also talked about having a response.
“Texas Tech didn’t get our best look (last month at Lubbock), and I felt like we were right in the game last time. These games, at Lubbock and at Tucson, probably really mirrored each other. The team that won probably controlled the game for the most part.”
JT Toppin had 21 points and 12 rebounds, Darrion Williams and Christian Anderson each had 17 points and Elijah Hawkins finished with 10 points and 12 assists for Texas Tech.
Toppin was Texas Tech’s leading scorer, but he had to work for the points against Veesaar and Awaka, who each had two blocked shots.
Carter Bryant started in place of Trey Townsend, who is out indefinitely because of concussion protocol.
“I don’t know if he will play Tuesday (at Kansas State),” Lloyd said of Townsend. “He’s an important piece to our puzzle. Maybe this little break and tending to the concussion maybe will reset him a little bit.”
Bryant played with foul trouble throughout and had four points, six rebounds and a blocked shot.
Bradley had five assists and five steals. In the last two games against BYU and Texas Tech, he committed only three turnovers in a combined 75 minutes.
Arizona finished with 18 assists on its 30 made field goals against the Red Raiders, one of the top defensive teams in the Big 12.
The concerted effort to drive to the basket resulted in Arizona outscoring Texas Tech 48-28 in the paint.
“Going into the game we knew it would be physical,” Braden said. “We wanted to get them back for that last time at their place. We knew it would be tough, especially without Trey, one of our key players. It was all hands on deck.”
The Wildcats outrebounded Texas Tech 42-29 after getting beat in the rebounding battle 50-34 at Lubbock.
“Arizona was more physical than us in every way,” Texas Tech coach Grant McCasland said. “The way they pushed it in transition, the way they got it into the paint and scored at the basket through us. The way they bullied us with their defense and activity. They basically beat us in every area.
“I thought they played with such great force over the course of the game. We responded a few times. We just couldn’t keep it up because of their effort.”
Arizona maintained a lead throughout the second half against Texas Tech by scoring all of its points inside the 3-point line.
The Wildcats attacked the basket regularly and made 14 of 20 (70 percent) of its shots inside the arc in the second half.
They missed the five 3-pointers they attempted in the second half.
Arizona lost 70-54 at Texas Tech after the Red Raiders closed on a 13-0 run. The Wildcats missed their last 10 shots, nine of them 3-pointers.
Lloyd wanted to make sure his players did not resort to 3-pointers this time around.
“When you went back and watch the first time we played them, we got knocked off our drive line, and we were doing things that I’ve never seen our guys do before,” Lloyd said. “That’s a response to their physicality on defense. They might not be big, but they’re physical and smart, and so I thought we did a much better job today just kind of asserting our physicality on them across the board.
“And I’m sure if we end up playing them again, it’ll be a knockdown, drag out fight where both teams are going to be throwing a lot of punches. So it’ll probably be a very interesting game.”
Eight unanswered points, including layups by Bradley and Lewis, put Arizona in control with a 74-63 lead with 3:15 remaining.
Toppin, who was benched early in the first half because he did not get back on defense, scored the last six points of the half over the final two minutes to keep Texas Tech close.
Arizona led 39-37 at halftime after Toppin made a buzzer-beating layup.
He had 12 points and eight rebounds at halftime..
A 7-2 run that included layups off drives to the basket in a half-court set by Lewis, Bradley and Love gave the Wildcats a 54-45 lead with 12:47 left.
Love missed the first 3-point attempt of the half by Arizona with 12:08 left but Veesaar grabbed the offensive rebound and was fouled.
He made both free throws to put Arizona ahead 56-48 with 11:55 remaining.
Veesaar made two dunks in a run of six unanswered points, giving Arizona a 62-52 lead with 9:02 left.
“Just watching how he’s progressed since I first got here has been amazing,” Awaka said of Veesaar. “He’s a great player, even greater person off the court, just seeing how he’s been working in the weight room, getting shots up before practice, things of that nature.
“It’s really no surprise that he’s showcasing what he is.”
Texas Tech responded with an 8-2 run that included 3-pointers by Anderson and Toppin to cut the lead to 64-60 with 6:40 remaining.
The Red Raiders could never get over the hump and take the lead in the second half because of Arizona’s very active defense and rebounding.
“I felt a different sense of urgency in this one from their end,” McCasland said. “You could tell that this meant a lot to them, defensively by the way they were playing. We were on our heels because of the way they got after us.”
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