Huskies No Match Against Arizona in Saturday Matinee, Fall 91-75

The UW recovered late but couldn't overcome an early deficit against the Wildcats.

The Washington basketball team received no reprieves this time, trailing by as many as 23 points on Saturday afternoon at No. 4 Arizona before falling 91-75 in Tucson. 

Wildcats senior guard Caleb Love dominated from start to finish, scoring a game-high 28 points on 9-of-19 shooting from the floor in 33 minutes. 

UW went on a 14-2 run and cut the deficit to 69-60 with 9:21 remaining after forward Moses Wood knocked down his second 3-pointer of the game. 

That was as close as the Huskies (15-13 overall, 7-10 Pac-12) would get on the afternoon.

Even with four players finishing in double-figures, and sophomore guard Koren Johnson leading the way with 17 points off the bench, the team had no consistent answer to slow down the Wildcats. 

Forward Keion Brooks Jr. managed just 15 points, six points below his Pac-12 Conference-leading season average, in 30 minutes of action. 

Sophomore guard Nate Calmese, an Arizona native and Lamar transfer, finished with a season-high 15 points in 20 minutes off the bench for coach Mike Hopkins. 

The Wildcats (21-6, 12-4) came out strong, opening with a 21-9 lead with 13:49 left in the first half. 

A combination of missed shots and a lack of rebounding on both ends let the flood gates open as UW saw its deficit grow to 42-21 with 6:23 remaining before halftime. 

After the Huskies went into intermission down 52-35, the Wildcats came out of the break on a 9-3 scoring run to separate even further. 

UW didn't have an answer inside for Wildcats center Oumar Ballo, who hauled down a game-high 14 rebounds for his seventh straight game with 10 or more boards. 

No two Husky players combined for as many rebounds as Ballo did in Tucson. Senior center Braxton Meah and junior forward Wilhelm Breidenbach had 6 rebounds apiece to lead the team.  

---

Go to si.com/college/washington to read the latest Inside the Huskies stories — as soon as they’re published.

Not all stories are posted on the fan sites.

Find Inside the Huskies on Facebook by searching: Inside Huskies/FanNation at SI.com or https://www.facebook.com/dan.raley.12

Follow Lars Hanson of Inside the Huskies on Twitter: @LarsHanson or @UWFanNation

Have a question? Message me on Twitter!