No. 5 Arizona’s Ivan Kharchenkov and Motiejus Krivas have each reached career-high totals of at least 30 points in the Wildcats’ first two games ahead of Tuesday’s game against Northern Arizona at McKale Center at ALKEME Arena.
The last time Arizona had two different players score 30 or more points in back-to-back games was Khalid Reeves and Damon Stoudamire during the 1993-94 season
Who’s next?
Tommy Lloyd could live without a 30-point scorer against the Lumberjacks (0-2), especially if it means the Wildcats (1-1) show more balance.
The game tips off at 7 p.m. on ESPN+. Darron Sutton and former Arizona standouts Matt Muehlebach and Corey Williams will call the action. Brian Jeffries and Ryan Hansen are the radio broadcasters at Wildcats Radio 1290-AM.
Kharchenkov scored 38 points and also had a career-best 10 rebounds in the season-opening 84-75 loss to UCLA in Las Vegas and Krivas totaled 30 points on 10-of-13 shooting from the field in a 104-84 victory over Cal Poly at Tucson last week.
Krivas, a 7-foot-2 Lithuanian, also made 10 of 12 free throws and collected eight rebounds. His performance was particularly important after he was limited to eight points while attempting only four shots against UCLA.
“UCLA is well coached and they defended me well,” Krivas told TNT after the win over Cal Poly. “I was determined to come out stronger (against Cal Poly), work for position and my teammates found me.”
True freshman guard Caleb Holt, who had 21 points and eight rebounds against Cal Poly, commented that Arizona feeds off Krivas’ intensity.
“Just going out there, being able to play with a skilled big guy, and that can protect the rim, and just wants to win at all costs, it’s amazing,” Holt said.
Kharchenkov followed his impressive performance against UCLA with another productive outing against Cal Poly with 16 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists and four steals.
Arizona also had 13 points from freshman forward Cameron Holmes and nine points and five assists from North Carolina transfer Derek Dixon against Cal Poly.
The Wildcats overpowered Cal Poly in the paint, outscoring the Mustangs 56-26 while winning the rebounding battle 44-30. Arizona also collected 14 steals and scored 25 points off turnovers.
Turnovers plagued Northern Arizona (0-2) in its opening losses on the road against Mountain West opponents UNLV (89-77 score) and New Mexico (94-65).
The Lumberjacks led by 12 points in the first half against UNLV, but turnovers turned the tide against them.
They committed 18 turnovers against UNLV, which resulted in 20 points for the Running Rebels. They had 16 turnovers against New Mexico that the Lobos converted to 23 points.
“We got sped up and didn’t run our sets,” Northern Arizona coach Shane Burcar said of the turnovers.
He added that the miscues are “factors hard to overcome to win a basketball game.”
Chris Komin, a sophomore guard, led the Lumberjacks with 24 points on 8-of-12 shooting, including four 3-pointers, in the loss to UNLV.
Komin had 21 points while recording six rebounds and six assists against New Mexico.
While taking care of the ball is an issue with Northern Arizona, Arizona’s main struggle so far has been its perimeter shooting.
The Wildcats made just four of 14 shots from 3-point range against Cal Poly after going 7 of 30 against UCLA.
“We’re trying to fight for our identity right now, so I feel like we gotta like keep at it, keep at it, keep at it, and then that feeling’s gonna come,” Lloyd said of his team’s scoring from the perimeter.
Arizona leads the series with Northern Arizona 103-27. The Wildcats have won the last 36 meetings dating to the 1968-69 season.
The Lumberjacks have two players with local backgrounds — senior center Dylan Anderson is a former Arizona player who transferred to Boise State and Murray State before landing with NAU for his final season, and former Pima College guard Max Majerle (Dan Majerle’s) son is with the Lumberjacks after playing at North Dakota State last season.
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