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Arizona-Oregon State game blog: Wildcats get back on track

Mark Lyons

Mark Lyons drives to the basket against Oregon State’s Ahmad Starks in the first half. Photo by Steve Dykes-USA TODAY Sports

The Arizona Wildcats finally played a Pac-12 game without final-seconds drama, maintaining a comfortable lead through the second half to beat Oregon State 80-70 in Corvallis.

Fourth-ranked Arizona got back on track after suffering its first loss of the season Thursday night at Oregon. The Cats improved to 15-1 overall and 3-1 in the Pac-12.

“Winning on the road, we’ll take it and move on,” coach Sean Miller said on ESPNU.

Solomon Hill hit five 3-pointers en route to 16 points. Mark Lyons had 16 points, five assists and five rebounds. Nick Johnson had a similar line: 14 points, six rebounds and five assists. Brandon Ashley had 12 points and seven boards.

Grant Jerrett was credited with six blocks for the Wildcats (although it should be noted that he was incorrectly given one that should have gone to Brandon Ashley in the first half).

The next two games will be intense.

The Wildcats play at rival Arizona State on Saturday; the Sun Devils are off to a surprising hot start, 3-0 in the league pending Sunday’s game at Oregon. Then comes a Jan. 24 home game against UCLA in the annual White Out game at McKale Center. The Bruins are off to a 4-0 start in the league and have won nine consecutive games.

“Arizona State is one of the much improved teams in the country,” Miller said. “We have to have a great week of practice.”

* * *

Final media timeout comes at 2:17. This one is safe. Arizona up 78-64.

* * *

Great block from behind by Kevin Parrom on a fast-break attempt by Ahmad Starks, whose shot gets swatted off the backboard. Parrom’s mantra: No easy buckets. This one coming to a highlight package near you.

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The Cats have been more aggressive in their past two possessions, including a drive leading to a three-point play by Nick Johnson. His free throw puts UA on top 75-61 with 5:37 remaining.

* * *

We’ve seen plenty of strange things this season, so Arizona can’t start the bus just yet. Cats are up 70-59 with 6:38 to go but 15 turnovers and have settled too much into a half-court game in recent possessions.

* * *

Solomon Hill makes his fifth 3-pointer of the game with 9:41 to play. That’s a personal best for Hill, who had four treys against Charleston Southern on Nov. 11. Tweets Scott Terrell of TucsonCitizen.com: #ArizonaWildcats changed into blue uniforms & Solomon Hill changed into Salim Stoudamire.

* * *

Arizona is cruising now and has taken the crowd out of the game at Gill Coliseum. The Wildcats take their biggest lead of the game at 64-48 with 10:16 to go on an alley-oop dunk from Mark Lyons to Nick Johnson.

* * *

Kevin Parrom hits two 3-pointers in succession to help give Arizona a 60-48 lead with 11:47 to play. The Cats have made 9 of 17 from behind the arc, and the other part of the story is 33-23 rebounding edge. I guess OSU misses suspended double-double man Eric Moreland.

* * *

TV cameras perfectly captured Sean Miller’s look of disbelief, with a big exhale, as the Cats committed their third turnover of the half and 13th of the game.

Screenshot courtesy of http://30fps.mocksession.com

* * *

Second half underway. The definition of a shot coach Sean Miller doesn’t want: A contested 3-pointer by Mark Lyons in the first 10 seconds of the shot clock. Naturally, it’s an air ball. Brandon Ashley is there to scoop up the rebound and get the layup, though, emblematic of UA’s edge on the boards tonight.

Lyons gets Arizona to the first media timeout with a steal and layup, giving the Cats their largest lead of the game at 49-37.

* * *

Arizona finds some separation, leading 43-35 at the end of a foul-plagued first half (Kevin Parrom and Grant Jerrett each have three). Cats leaning on their three-point shooting (6 of 11) and rebounding (25-16 edge). Oregon State’s Ahmad Starks has 13 points.

* * *

Solomon Hill tracker: He is 4 of 5 on 3-point shots and has 12 points late in the first half.

* * *

Brandon Ashley comes flying through the air to block a shot and then goes tumbling onto his tailbone. That’s good effort and a lot of pain … and he might not even get official credit for it, because OSU credited that block to Grant Jerrett on a feed of the live stats. We’ll see if they fix it.

* * *

Kevin Parrom commits a flagrant foul with 3:29 to go in the half, as he made contact with his hand to Joe Burton’s face while going for a defensive rebound. Nothing intentional but rules are the rules. Burton makes both to cut Arizona’s lead to 34-33. OSU gets the ball, too.

* * *

Arizona’s 10th turnover of the half leads to a Devon Collier fast-break dunk as Oregon State gets within 32-31 with four minutes to go before the break. The Beavers look every bit as athletic as the Wildcats.

* * *

Solomon Hill tracker: He makes another 3-pointer, making him 9 of 12 in Pac-12 play. Arizona holding off Oregon State so far but can’t pull away, leading 27-23 with 7:45 to go in the first half.

* * *

Grant Jerrett back in. No problem with ankle. He hits a layup for a 24-18 lead with 9:17 to go.

* * *

Slippery-quick OSU point guard Ahmad Starks is giving Mark Lyons fits in drives to the hoop. Starks has seven points midway through the half.

* * *

Ahmad Starks hits a 3-pointer to being Oregon State within 17-16 at the second media timeout. Arizona, which has been much better in the turnover department in the past few games, already has six. The most recent came with 11:52 to go in the half, when Mark Lyons fed a pass along the baseline to Kaleb Tarczewski, who had his right heel out of bounds.

* * *

Grant Jerrett goes to the bench with 13:33 left; trainers looking at his ankle.

* * *

The biggest concern for coach Sean Miller has been defense and, so far, Oregon State is finding plenty of good shots right around the basket. Arizona has recovered to block four shots with only 6 1/2 minutes gone, but the Beavers are doing a nice job of penetrating and dishing and making life scary for the Cats in the paint.

* * *

Grant Jerrett makes a 3-point in transition to give Arizona a 13-5 lead. The Cats are 3 for 3 from 3-point range.

* * *

An open 3-pointer has been a good look for Solomon Hill for the past year. He drills an early trey to give Arizona a 5-2 lead, making him 8 of 11 from beyond the arc in league games. His shooting really improved at about the midpoint of last season, and not all teams give him the respect he deserves from out there.

* * *

Brandon Ashley is back in the starting lineup, as expected. He sat for the start of the Oregon game because of matchups — Sean Miller wanted to go smaller with Kevin Parrom at forward and Solomon Hill sliding up to power forward because the Ducks started the versatile E.J. Singler at the four spot. Miller made it clear after the game that the change had nothing to do with anything Ashley had done.

* * *

The Arizona Wildcats, trying to get a split on the Oregon road trip, have to show they can bounce back from a loss.

Sean Miller’s crew will be trying to keep pace in the Pac-12 race, too, when the Cats take on Oregon State tonight. UCLA won at Colorado (impressive) earlier today to improve to 4-0 in the league. The Bruins have won nine in a row, should be ranked when the new polls come out Monday, and have seemingly put all their talented pieces in place after early tumult.

Arizona senior Solomon Hill told Doug Haller of the Arizona Republic — covering two teams while on the Oregon trail this week — that the Cats “started getting a little fat on ourselves” with a 14-0 start.

Arizona lost at Oregon 70-66 on Thursday night.

“We came back against Colorado, pulled close ones out against Utah, Florida, San Diego State and Clemson. And instead of having that edgy first half that we’re used to having, we didn’t have that against Oregon. We thought we could just make the second-half push that we’ve always been making, and it didn’t happen.”

Oregon State is coming off a 72-62 loss to Arizona State on Thursday and will be without suspended sophomore post Eric Moreland, who was averaging 10.8 points and 11.1 rebounds this season. He’s also been a defensive force at the top of OSU’s 1-3-1 zone.

The absence of Moreland should be a big relief to Arizona’s trio of freshman post players — Kaleb Tarczewski, Brandon Ashley and Grant Jerrett — who are shooting a combined 36.7 percent (18 of 49) in three conference games.

The Beavers will take aim at Arizona’s leaky 3-point defense with Roberto Nelson (26 of 59, 44.1 percent) and Ahmad Starks (38 of 89, 43.8 percent).

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