Arizona’s 7-foot-2 center Motiejus Krivas tied a career-high with 20 points and had nine rebounds to lead the No. 2 Wildcats to a 98-61 victory Saturday over Norfolk State at McKale Center.
The Wildcats (7-0) shot 56.1 percent from the field, including Krivas’ 7-of-8 performance.
“The biggest struggle I’ve had this year is just fouling; I try not to foul, but when I’m the biggest guy, I just try to take advantage of it and dominate the paint and offensive boards,” said Krivas, who finished with three fouls and four offensive rebounds, during a postgame interview with ESPN+.
Koa Peat and Anthony Dell’Orso each had 16 points, and Brayden Burries finished with 15.
Tobe Awaka had 13 points and eight rebounds.
Arizona freshman Ivan Kharchenkov played nine minutes in the first half before suffering a sprained ankle injury that prevented him from returning.
“We think he’ll be fine,” said Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd during the 1290-AM postgame interview.
He mentioned that Kharchenkov rolled his ankle while stepping on the foot of another player.
Norfolk State’s lone player in double-figure scoring was Anthony McComb III, who finished with 19 points.
The Spartans (4-5) started a stretch of 10 straight games on the road with Saturday’s game.
Arizona had 20 assists that contributed to its 32 made field goals.
The Wildcats’ 44-27 rebounding advantage translated to a 58-24 scoring advantage in the paint.
Lloyd said that he was surprised that Norfolk State used a “Line and 3” defense in which the three perimeter players played tight to the ball-handler and others on the perimeter while the power forward was at the free-throw line and center near the basket.
“Their bigs kind of played a tandem zone,” Lloyd said. “That left us with a lot of space in the paint and underneath. I honestly thought we would have shot more 3’s (2 of 11), because I thought they were going to be pretty gappy on defense today, but they weren’t.
“So our guys took what was there and we put a lot of foul pressure on them.”
Arizona outscored Norfolk State 32-2 at the free-throw line.
The Wildcats were 32 of 46 with their free throws and the Spartans were 2 of 9.
Norfolk State led 26-25 with 6:54 left in the first half following a jump shot by Adrean Newton.
Arizona followed with a 10-2 run that included Krivas, Awaka and Burries converting 3-point plays.
Krivas agility around the basket has improved for him to draw fouls while making strong moves.
“He’s getting better; I mean, Mo is a really good player,” Lloyd said. “Sometimes, you could be a really good player not have a 20-point game for a while. So it’s good to see him be able to have a 20-point game. … We’ve had six different guys score 20 points in our seven games. That’s pretty cool.”
The Wildcats closed the half on a 12-2 run to take a 47-32 lead.
Krivas reached a season-high of 15 points in the first half and tallied seven rebounds.
“We’re feeling good, but we know it’s just the beginning of the season,” Krivas said. “We’ll have to have growth mindset, and every day, improve on the little details to become a championship team.”
Arizona attempted 17 of 26 shots from the free-throw line in the first half, its most attempts from the line in a half since the 1996-97 season, according to the school.
“I think our guys are making 32 free throws (in the game) is no small matter,” Lloyd said. “I mean, maybe we could have made a few more, but I was happy with that.”
In the first nine minutes of the second half, Arizona outscored Norfolk State 28-8 to pull away to a 73-40 lead.
Norfolk State made 42.2 percent of its shots, including 5 of 16 from 3-point range, while committing 14 turnovers.
Arizona scored 19 points off of those turnovers.
The Wildcats’ defensive effort included 12 steals and five blocked shots.
Arizona will next host No. 21 Auburn next Saturday at 8 p.m.
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