The No. 1 seed Arizona Wildcats wasted no time asserting their dominance over No. 16 Long Island in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament, never trailing behing the scoring of freshmen Brayden Burries, Koa Peat and Ivan Kharchenkov in a 92-58 victory Friday afternoon at Viejas Arena in San Diego.
Arizona (33-2) advanced to the second round, where it will play either No. 8 Villanova (24-8) or No. 9 Utah State (28-6) at a time to be determined on Sunday. Villanova and Utah State played Friday afternoon.
Burries had 18 points and five rebounds against LIU, Peat had 15 points and seven rebounds and Kharchenkov finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds.
The trio combined for 47 points, 22 rebounds and six assists.
“We talk about it a lot about having an identity is important,” Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd told TNT after the game when asked about the freshmen helping to establish the Wildcats’ identity as a No. 1 seed in March Madness.
“Your identity and your values matter, and you’ve got to honor those on a daily basis.”
Tobe Awaka posted 11 points and eight rebounds, and Motiejus Krivas finished with nine points and seven rebounds.
Jaden Bradley finished with seven points, five rebounds and four assists in 23 minutes.
The blowout gave Lloyd the opportunity to play all 14 of his players.
Anthony Dell’Orso contributed eight points and Dwayne Aristode, another freshman, had four points and four rebounds.
Arizona went on an 18-2 run, that includes five points each from Burries and Kharchenkov, to take a 47-20 lead with 3:46 left in the first half.
LIU did not come closer than 22 points the rest of the way.
When the Sharks (24-11) cut the lead to 67-45 with 10:12 left, the Wildcats shut the door with a 9-0 run.
Arizona outrebounded LIU 52-31 and controlled the paint, outscoring the Sharks 50-26 in that area.
The Wildcats shot 53.3% from the field and limited LIU to 32.4%.
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