Christian Koloko posted a double-double and five Arizona players scored in double figures as the No. 3 Wildcats jumped on Cal early and didn’t let up in a 96-71 Pac-12 victory in Berkeley, Calif, on Sunday.
The Wildcats (16-1, 6-0 Pac-12) had no issues while playing without second-leading scorer Azuolas Tubelis, who suffered a sprained left ankle in Thursday night’s victory against Stanford. They led by double-digits for more than the final 34 minutes.
Koloko, a sophomore, scored a team-high 19 points and grabbed a career-best 13 rebounds. Cal (9-10, 2-6) was led by Jordan Shepherd, who scored 21 points but shot just 7 of 19 from the field.
Arizona won its fifth consecutive game while sending the Bears to their fifth loss in a row. Cal trimmed a 48-27 halftime deficit to 56-40, but Arizona answered with a quick 11-0 run to quell any thoughts of a comeback.
Without Tubelis, Arizona had only two true big men and seven rotational players available. Coach Tommy Lloyd mixed things up, sometimes playing 7-footers Koloko and Oumar Ballo together, also going with a lineup that featured five perimeter players.
Ballo scored 14 points, as did Bennedict Mathurin. Kerr Kriisa contributed 13 points, and Justin Kier contributed 10.
Bears coach Mark Fox was ejected with 2:37 to go in the first half after picking up his second technical foul for arguing with the game officials.
The Wildcats shot 48.4 percent (31 of 64) while holding Cal to 35.2 percent from the field (25 of 71).
With a showdown looming at No. 9 UCLA on Tuesday, this matchup against Cal — the middle outing of a three-game trip — had the potential look of a “trap” game.
But the Wildcats quickly dispelled any notion that they were looking ahead, racing to a 17-3 lead. Cal closed within 24-14 but never got its deficit back to single digits, as Arizona accelerated again, this time with a 20-5 run to go up 44-19 with 2:37 left in the half.
–Field Level Media