Solomon Hill takes a shot in the first half; he was tossed from the game early in the second half. Photo by Douglas C. Pizac-US PRESSWIRE
Coach Sean Miller said in his postgame radio interview with Brian Jeffries that he didn’t see the play in which Solomon Hill was ejected. Miller declined comment until he could see a replay.
“I just know Solomon is a great kid,” Miller said. “Sometimes things happen in the heat of the battle. We’ll watch the film and talk to him.”
Hill had five points and four rebounds.
“Solomon wasn’t playing well. It wasn’t as if we lost him on a real good night,” Miller said. “He wasn’t having a good night, but we are clearly a better team with him. In that brief moment when he left, we answered like you’d want a team to answer.”
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Arizona takes care of business with a 77-51 win at Utah, outscoring the Utes by 21 points after Solomon Hill’s ejection with 18:14 to go. The Cats made 12 of 24 3-point shots.
Utah is a bad team, made worse by the dismissal of point guard Josh Watkins, so the margin of victory is nothing to get excited about. Things will be tougher Saturday at Colorado, which is 10-1 at home.
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Just running out the clock now. Am eager to hear what Sean Miller says about Solomon Hill after the game. Only nine turnovers with about three minutes to go; that should make Miller relatively pleased.
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Arizona leads 60-45 with 7:58 to go and just needs to bring this one in for a landing against a really bad Pac-12 team.
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Turnover No. 9, 10:22 to go: Ball goes out of bounds off Jesse Perry as the teams battle for possession under the basket.
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Turnover No. 8, 11:14 to go: Jesse Perry commits an offensive foul.
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The Cats went on a 16-2 run after Solomon Hill was ejected, hitting 7 of 7 shots from the field. For the third time tonight, an Arizona player hit back-to-back 3-pointers; this time it comes from Kevin Parrom.
The Wildcats open up a 57-36 lead with 11:54 to go. It’s now the kind of comfortable game for Arizona that it should have been earlier.
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Arizona rallying since Solomon Hill’s ejection, taking care of the ball and getting back-to-back 3-pointers from Nick Johnson to take a 45-32 lead with 15:13 to play. It was 35-30 when Hill left the game. Curtis Martin is just getting back into the game for the Utes after taking a shot in the back of his head.
It’s a 10-0 run for the Cats.
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Turnover No. 7, 17:38 to go: (I missed this one, but Kevin Parrom is credited with committing a turnover.)
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Officials looking at replays with 18:14 after Utah’s Cedric Martin hits the deck in the middle of the lane. No doubt, Arizona’s Solomon Hill made contact with his right elbow to the back of Martin’s head … and officials rule that it was intentional, ejecting Hill for a flagrant foul.
Hill had five points and four rebounds. UA loses its best player on the road, and its nine-man rotation is now eight.
But can’t argue with the ejection. The shot to the head did not look accidental.
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Coach Sean Miller was not happy with a 33-28 halftime lead at Utah.
In a halftime interview with FoxSportsArizona.com, Miller shook his head at six turnovers (most of which were simply careless rather than great plays by Utah).
“We’re not playing well,” he said. “When you don’t play well on the road, it’s hard to win.
“I thought Kyle Fogg did a great job; two really clutch threes there. But we’re getting spread out on defense and they’re starting to drive us. That’s one thing we have to address.
“And then turnovers — dribble, pass, catch.”
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Back-to-back 3-pointers from Kyle Fogg lets Arizona expand the lead late in the first half after Utah whittled the lead to one.
Utah big man Jason Washburn, using his 6-10 height that Arizona’s small lineup has no answer for, shoots over the Cats for a basket with 10 seconds left to make the score 33-28 Arizona going into halftime.
FoxSportsArizona.com play-by-play man Dave Sitton called that first half “entertaining.” I might opt for cleaning out the garage than having to watch another half of basketball like that.
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Arizona leads 23-20 in a game that won’t do much to help the Pac-12′s reputation. Not a lot of energy or highlights so far, and the Wildcats really shouldn’t be letting the Utes hang around.
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Turnover No. 6, 4:08 left in the first half: Solomon Hill gets himself in the air with nowhere to go along the baseline and tries to wrap around a pass under the basket. It is stolen.
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Turnover No. 5, 4:45 left in the first half: Kevin Parrom can’t handle the pass; the ball goes out of bounds.
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Kevin Parrom’s next 3-point attempt is an air ball.
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Kevin Parrom rattles in a 3-pointer. Good to see, considering he had a total of five points in the past four games. Coach Sean Miller talked this week that a case could be made that Parrom should have redshirted this season after his Sept. 24 shooting.
That Parrom is playing at all is a blessing, but he hasn’t made the impact he’s capable of making. With the way Miller was talking, it seems like a long shot that Parrom will be a big factor later in the season.
Arizona, on a 9-0 run, leads 21-11 with 7:38 left in the half.
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Solomon Hill doing it on both ends of the court, getting fouled on a strong move to the basket and then drawing a charge on the other end.
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Turnover No. 4, 10:17 left in the first half: Nick Johnson, trying to take advantage of a fast break, has his pass into the lane stolen. At this pace, Arizona will hit its average of 15.2 turnovers per game in conference play.
Well, at this pace Johnson will have 16 turnovers all by himself.
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The 3-point shot has been Arizona’s saving grace (at times) on offense. The Wildcats hit three of their first four attempts from behind the arc, leading Utah 12-9 with 10:29 to go before halftime.
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Turnover No. 3: 12:03 left in the first half: Jesse Perry, along the baseline, lets a pass from Nick Johnson go off his hands out of bounds. Looks like they credited the turnover to Johnson because of the high pass.
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Arizona leads Utah 6-3 at the first media timeout in a cavernous Huntsman Center. The Utes traditionally draw big crowds and do very well at home, but this isn’t one of those years.
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Turnover No. 2, 16:57 left in first half: Nick Johnson, trying to weave his way into the lane, has the ball stolen.
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Turnover No. 1, 19:02 left in first half: Since we will all be keeping track of turnovers tonight, given coach Sean Miller’s rant, the first one of the night goes to freshman Nick Johnson, whose bounce pass to Jesse Perry in the lane goes askew.