It took a while, but No. 1 Arizona took care of business.
Behind the energy of freshman Ivan Kharchenkov — who ignited McKale Center and his teammates with his hustle and arm waving to the crowd — the Wildcats pulled away to a 77-51 victory on Wednesday night at McKale Center to improve to 19-0.
The Wildcats are two wins shy of matching the best start in program history — 21-0 in 2013-14.
Arizona, 6-0 in the Big 12, can reach win No. 20 overall on Saturday against West Virginia at noon at McKale.
The Wildcats looked like they could cruise early on, making six of their first nine shots from the field to lead 15-6 with 15:10 left in the first half.
Almost seven minutes later, with 8:45 remaining until halftime, Motiejus Krivas broke an 0-of-10 cold spell from the field, giving Arizona a 20-18 lead.
Krivas had eight points at halftime on 4-of-6 shooting and Koa Peat, playing only 10 minutes because of two fouls, had seven points making 3 of 4 from the field.
Their teammates were a combined 4 of 20 from the field at that point.
Despite that, and the fact Cincinnati (10-9, 2-4) led 13-1 in bench points, Arizona still led 33-27 at halftime.
The Bearcats made only 36 percent (9 of 25) of their shots in the first half.
Cincinnati looked like the team that upset then-No. 2 Iowa State at home Saturday when it trailed by only 40-38 with 14:12 remaining.
Arizona’s interior tandem of Krivas and Tobe Awaka powered their way to four points each in an 8-0 run the pushed the lead to 48-38 with 11:52 left.
That was at the early part of a stretch of 9:01 with only one field goal made for the Bearcats, who were in a 1-of-12 spell.
Arizona led 58-44 at that point.
Kharchenkov’s hustle and appeal to the crowd to get on its feet ignited a 17-2 run that put Arizona ahead 69-46 with 3:34 remaining. Kharchenkov had a couple of strong moves to the basket during that stretch.
Kharchenkov finished with 14 points on 6-of-11 shooting from the field, most of the shots falling from aggressive moves to the basket.
Krivas led the Wildcats with 17 points, making 9 of 11 shots, and he pulled down nine rebounds.
Brayden Burries finished with 12 points and 10 rebounds. He made 2 of 4 from 3-point range. Arizona was 3 of 13 overall from beyond the arc.
Peat finished with 13 points and six rebounds.
Arizona outscored Cincinnati in the paint 48-14 and 17-1 in points off turnovers.
The Wildcats found their shooting touch in the second half, making 16 of 33 (48.5%) shots from the field. Cincinnati made only 8 of 31 (25.8%) after halftime.
Arizona had only six turnovers to go with 15 assists. Jaden Bradley did not commit a turnover in 33 minutes and recorded four assists.
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