The Wildcats coast home, taking a 68-51 victory over Arizona State at McKale Center.
Coach Sean Miller improved to 4-1 against ASU and has won three in a row in the rivalry against Herb Sendek, whom he worked for at North Carolina State from 1996 to 2001.
Jesse Perry led the UA in scoring with 16 points.
Arizona forced 19 turnovers and held ASU to 36 percent shooting (18 of 50).
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Arizona has slowed the pace down, taking time off the clock, but ASU responded with a 7-0 run that cut the lead to 58-45. That made the crowd a bit nervous, although UA hit back and took a 63-47 edge with 3:58 to play.
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ASU has 33 points with 10:32 to play. Can Arizona keep the Devils to 44 or less? The last time that happened in the series was 1949.
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Sean Miller still working hard. He emphatically calls for four subs after Arizona gives up a long rebound. Even with the minor transgression, the Wildcats lead 51-29 with 11:13 to go.
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Counting football, ASU is going to fall to 0-2 against Arizona wearing all-black uniforms.
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The Wildcats used a 12-2 run at the start of the second half to further take control against Arizona State. The pace is increasingly favoring Arizona, which had big dunks from Jesse Perry and Nick Johnson early in the half to help build a 46-22 lead with 16:37 to play.
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A Nick Johnson slam dunk gave UA a two-times lead on ASU at 40-20 with 17:51 to go.
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Jesse Perry scores the first four points of the second half, including two on a flying two-handed dunk. Arizona leads 38-20 … and there is no way ASU has enough offense to come back.
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Halftime: Arizona leads 34-20. The Wildcats have 17 points off turnovers; ASU has three.
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Arizona’s defense is utterly dominating, forcing 13 turnovers and holding ASU to 6 of 17 shooting with 2:40 to go before halftime. Arizona leads 34-16.
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Nick Johnson was holding his right hand after turning the ball over near the baseline. Doesn’t look serious, but he comes out of the game.
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A steal by Josiah Turner leads to a fastbreak opportunity and an alley-oop pass form abotu 40 feet to Nick Johnson, who skies for the slam dunk. That’s the freshman connection everyone hoped to see a lot of this season.
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ASU: Eight turnovers in the first 11 minutes, including a shot-clock violation. The Cats take a 20-11 lead on Jesse Perry’s 3-pointer.
Update: 10 turnovers in the first 12 minutes for ASU.
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A couple of trends by the second media timeout — ASU has been concerned about turnovers, and it has committed five with 11:58 to go in the half. The Sun Devils, like Arizona, doesn’t get much planned offense from its true post players and is having trouble getting good looks from the perimeter against UA’s on-ball pressure.
Arizona leads 11-7.
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Ragged hoops at McKale: Eight turnovers by first media timeout … teams combined 4 of 14 from the field. UA leads 8-5. The pace of the game so far is favoring Arizona; this could turn into a 3-point shooting contest.
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Kyle Fogg is drawing point guard Keala King as his defensive assignment. Fogg’s defense contributed to two ASU turnovers on its first two possessions, and King rushed a shot in the lane on ASU’s third possession.
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Coach Sean Miller stuck with his three-guard starting lineup, which makes sense against ASU, which doesn’t have productive size. The Wildcats went with PG Jordin Mayes, SG Nick Johnson, SG Kyle Fogg, F Solomon Hill and PF Jesse Perry.
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Arizona State is wearing all-black uniforms for the first time.
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The athletic department distributed blue “3″ cards on every seat at McKale Center before the game. The Wildcats hope to give fans plenty of reason to flash those cards; UA is one of the best 3-point shooting teams in the league, hitting 37.8 percent (102 of 270).
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I’ve been ignoring Arizona basketball lately while burning through my final vacation time of the year — use it or lose it — only to re-emerge here at the start of the Pac-12 season.
Arizona plays host to Arizona State at McKale Center in a game in which the Wildcats should win comfortably. The Devils are struggling at 4-8 overall, with losses to Fresno State, NAU, Fairfield and Pepperdine, among others.
While the Cats (9-4) have had trouble starting fast, ASU often has failed to finish. The Sun Devils have had nine games decided by six points or less, going 3-6 in those contests.
UA coach Sean Miller has talked in the past couple of weeks about playing fast … well, playing faster at least. That’s the way the Cats have to be to offset their lack of size.
Playing faster leads to more good looks in transition, which helps Arizona’s strength — its perimeter scoring and depth.
“We’re better when we have good pace to what we do,” Miller said. “Half-court, grind-it-out, bulldozer basketball is not what we want to do.”
Arizona swept the series last season, and Miller is 3-1 vs. ASU.
Sun Devils coach Herb Sendek is 6-5 against UA, going 4-0 a few years back against interim coaches Kevin O’Neill and Russ Pennell.
Related: Doug Haller of the Arizona Republic: ASU, Arizona each looking to step up as Pac-12 play begins
Check back here during the game for updates and analysis, and have your say in the comments section…