Reserve guard Anthony Dell’Orso led a balanced scoring effort of seven players in double figures with 19 points in Arizona’s 102-66 victory Saturday over Southern Utah at McKale Center.
Arizona’s bench outscored Southern Utah’s reserves 62-13 behind Dell’Orso, KJ Lewis (15 points on 6-of-7 shooting with eight rebounds and five assists), Henri Veesaar (13 points) and Motiejus Krivas (10 points).
Trey Townsend and Tobe Awaka each had 12 points and Caleb Love finished with 11.
None of Arizona’s players logged more than 24 minutes.
The Wildcats (4-4) avoided its first three-game losing streak since the 2019-20 season. They play rival UCLA (7-1) next Saturday at Phoenix in its first non-conference game against the Bruins since 1977.
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Southern Utah (8-3) has lost all three of its games on the road, against Arizona, UCLA and Loyola of Chicago.
Jamir Simpson led the Thunderbirds with 21 points and seven rebounds.
Dominique Ford contributed 13 points.
Arizona did not have a double-figure scorer until 14:50 remained when Lewis made two free throws to give him 11 points and increase Arizona’s lead to 68-34.
Seven of Arizona’s players had either eight or nine points before that point.
Southern Utah led only after a 3-pointer by Tavi Jackson opened the game’s scoring.
Townsend scored six points in a 13-3 run, allowing the Wildcats to take a 13-6 lead with 13:43 left in the first half.
Arizona held Southern Utah without a field goal for five minutes while it went on a 15-2 run.
Dell’Orso, Veesaar, Krivas and fellow reserve Conrad Martinez scored all of the Wildcats’ points in that stretch, which gave them a 33-16 lead.
Arizona made seven of its last 10 shots from the field in the first half and took a 55-23 lead at halftime.
The Wildcats led by at least 29 points the entire second half.
Arizona shot 52.8 percent from the field in the first half and 50 percent in the game.
It outscored Southern Utah 52-18 in the paint and 21-1 in fast-break points.
The Wildcats had 23 assists of its 34 made field-goal attempts.
Arizona also outrebounded Southern Utah 47-32 led by freshman Carter Bryant’s nine.
Bryant also contributed four assists.
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