Arizona Basketball suffers first loss of the season against Wisconsin

Arizona will compete for a Big 12 title in their first year as a member of the conference.

That’s the kind of program Tommy Lloyd has built in his short time in charge, having already taken the Pac-12 by storm with two regular-season titles and two conference tournament titles during his first three years in office before moving conferences forward. campaign.

The Wildcats entered Friday’s showdown Wisconsin looks completely dominant, defeated Canisius93-64, and Old rule102-44.

But this was undoubtedly their biggest test yet.

Unfortunately, they won’t leave Madison with a passing grade after being handily defeated by the Badgers, 103-88.

Arizona didn’t look good from the tip off, finding themselves in an early 7-0 hole before finding their footing and tightening things up prior to the first TV timeout. That run, however, was the harbinger of things to come, as Wisconsin led nearly wire-to-wire.

The Wildcats struggled to shut down the Badgers’ perimeter attack, allowing 50% shooting from the field and 46.2% from three-point range to take them into the locker room, 55-44.

Defense has been a problem for Arizona in the past, and it was on full display Friday night.

Fortunately, their offense kept them in the game coming out of halftime, cutting their 11-point deficit to six at the first TV timeout of the second half, before effectively leveling things at 65 with 14 to go. :13 to go in the match.

But that was the closest Arizona ever came to taking the lead, as it didn’t have an advantage at any point during this game.

Wisconsin continued to attack on offense, continued to find success scoring on the inside, from the perimeter, and used the free throw line to score a string of points.

With just over seven minutes remaining, the writing was on the wall as the Badgers took a 10-point lead after John Tonje made a free throw. Arizona was never able to overcome that deficit before suffering their first loss of the season.

Wisconsin shot 48.1% from the field (25-52) and 44.4% from 3-point range (12-27), while also going a whopping 41-47 from the free throw line.

Arizona shot 37.8% from the field (28-74) and just 17.4% from three (4-23), while also struggling at the line in going 28-40.

Wildcats star guard Caleb Love had a tough night, finishing with just six points on 2-13 shooting and 0-6 from three. Their top scorer was junior guard Jaden Bradley, who scored 22 points on 50% shooting from the field while also pulling down six rebounds.

Two others finished with double digits as Oakland Trey Towsend scored 17 points and KJ Lewis 15. Tobe Awaka fell one point short of recording a double-double and finished with 13 rebounds.

Defensively, Arizona was torched by senior guard Tonje, who scored 41 points by going 8-14 from the field, 4-6 from three and 21-22 from the free throw line.

This wasn’t the outcome the Wildcats wanted, but it’s still very early in this campaign.

They have a week to prepare for another major showdown Dukewhom they welcome to the McKale Center on November 22.