Tommy Lloyd told reporters after Saturday’s loss against Houston at McKale Center they thought his team will get their exterior kicked at Baylor on Monday night.
“We might get our ass kicked Monday … but we might not,” he said. “I want to see what we have. I want to see what our guys are made of. I want to see how they respond.”
The 19th-ranked Wildcats did the a– kicking, especially in the paint on the offensive end, subduing the Bears in a 74-67 victory at the raucous new Foster Pavilion.
Among the 7,500 in attendance were 35 NBA scouts from 24 different teams.
Baylor freshman sensation VJ Edgecombe was the main attraction but Henri Veesaar, Tobe Awaka and Carter Bryant must have also turned heads.
Veesaar was impressive in his first career start with 13 points and five rebounds, Awaka had 14 points and 12 rebounds and Bryant had a career-high six assists with six rebounds and seven points.
“I’m one of the old school guys — I like big boys,” Lloyd said about starting Veesaar and Awaka together on the frontcourt during his postgame interview on 1290-AM. “I am always comfortable having them out there. I thought they played great. I thought those big guys really were the difference in the game.”
Arizona (18-8, 12-3 Big 12) improved to 6-2 on the road in the conference and avoided the first three-game losing streak in the Lloyd era over his four-year tenure.
“You’re at Baylor; it’s a coin toss type game if you’re lucky,” Lloyd said in the postgame press conference. “I knew coming into today losing was a possibility.
“Today’s win was important for our season and our team, and we approached it as such.”
Lloyd wanted to know what his team is made of after the loss to Houston? How about steel? Or steal?
Arizona’s defense was efficient enough, sans stopping Edgecombe, with nine steals while limiting Baylor to 40 percent shooting from the field, including 5 of 22 from beyond the arc.
The Bears (16-10, 8-7) scored 18 points from the free-throw line behind Edgecombe’s 11-of-14 performance in his 24-point outing.
Arizona again struggled from 3-point range, making 4 of 18 (22.2 percent)
On the inside, the Wildcats were tough to handle with their decided size advantage with Baylor center Josh Ojianwuna out for the rest of the season with a knee injury.
Arizona made 24 of 40 (60 percent) of its shots inside the arc.
The Wildcats outscored Baylor 42-34 in the paint.
“Tobe did an amazing job sealing,” Veesaar said in the postgame press conference. “He’s just such a big presence down there, so it was easy to find him.
“With offensive rebounds, we knew we just all got to crash because we had a height advantage down there.”
Arizona led for most of the first half and took a 41-31 lead in the last minute on Caleb Love’s lone 3-pointer of the game.
Love finished with 13 points, shooting 5 of 14 from the field, 1 of 7 from 3-point range.
Arizona’s lead mounted to 49-35 with 15:02 left.
Baylor quickly cut into the lead, going on an 8-2 run that narrowed the score to 55-51 with 7:39 left.
Arizona pushed the lead to 63-54 with 5:01 remaining before Edgecombe took over.
Edgecombe scored 13 of Baylor’s last 17 points, continuously driving the lane either getting shots off or getting fouled.
Lloyd tried practically everyone on him defensively, including Awaka and Bryant.
Edgecombe was not enough to overcome the determined Wildcats.
Bryant, Love and KJ Lewis sealed the victory making six consecutive free throws in the last 36 seconds.
They finished strong.
Anthony Dell’Orso started that way, scoring nine of his 11 points in the first half.
Arizona had 15 assists on 18 made field goals in the first half because of the production of Dell’Orso, Awaka and Veesaar. The Wildcats finished with 20 assists, the ninth time they have accomplished at least that many this year, all of them wins.
“I just thought we did a good job showing up with energy,” Lloyd said. “Obviously with Henri and Tobe, we kind of played our bigger lineup, which we haven’t done much until today. I thought they were great.
“Henri is turning into Hank right in front of our eyes. So I’m super proud of him.”
Lloyd said Arizona will take two days off before preparing for Saturday’s game with BYU at 8 p.m. at McKale. The Wildcats then host Utah next Wednesday.
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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon. He became an educator in 2016 and is presently a special education teacher at Sunnyside High School in the Sunnyside Unified School District.
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