Arizona Basketball Suffers First Loss of Season in Road Game Against Wisconsin
Arizona is going to be contending for a Big 12 title in their first year as a member of the conference.
That's the type 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 on the job before they moved conferences ahead of this campaign.
The Wildcats came into Friday's showdown against Wisconsin looking completely dominant, having beaten Canisius, 93-64, and Old Dominion, 102-44.
But this was undoubtedly their biggest test to date.
Unfortunately, they will not leave Madison with a passing grade after they were beaten handily by the Badgers, 103-88.
Arizona looked out of sorts from tip off, getting into an early 7-0 hole before they found their footing and tightened things up ahead of the first TV timeout. However, that run was the precursor for what was to come, as Wisconsin almost led wire-to-wire.
The Wildcats struggled to shut down the perimeter attack of the Badgers, allowing 50% shooting from the field and 46.2% from 3-point range that had them enter the locker room down, 55-44.
Defense has been an issue for Arizona in the past, and that was on full display Friday night.
Fortunately, their offense kept them in the game as they came out of halftime firing, cutting their 11-point deficit to six at the first TV timeout of the second half before actually tying things up at 65 with 14:13 left in the contest.
But that was the closest Arizona ever got to taking the lead, failing to have an advantage at any point during this game.
Wisconsin kept attacking on offense, continuing to find success scoring on the inside, from the perimeter, and using the free throw line to put up a flurry of points.
The writing was on the wall with just over seven minutes left in the game when the Badgers took a 10-point lead after John Tonje made a free throw. Arizona was never able to overcome that deficit before they were handed their first loss of the season.
Wisconsin finished shooting 48.1% from the field (25-52) and 44.4% from 3-point range (12-27), while also going a staggering 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 by 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 leading scorer was junior guard Jaden Bradley who put up 22 points on 50% shooting from the field while also pulling down six rebounds.
Two others finished in double-digits as Oakland transfer Trey Towsend scored 17 points and KJ Lewis had 15. Tobe Awaka was one point short of recording a double-double, finishing with 13 rebounds.
Defensively, Arizona was torched by the senior guard Tonje who put up 41 points by going 8-14 from the field, 4-6 from three and 21-22 from the free throw line.
This was not the result the Wildcats wanted, but it's still very early in this campaign.
They'll have a week to prepare for another huge showdown against Duke, who they welcome into the McKale Center on Nov. 22.
