Motiejus Krivas tied his career high in scoring with 20 points while Arizona scored 30 more points than Norfolk State at the free-throw lines and beat the Spartans 98-61 on Saturday at McKale Center.
Arizona, however, lost starting wing Ivan Kharchenkov to an apparent left ankle injury late in the first half and his status is unclear for the Wildcats’ Dec. 6 game against Auburn.
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Kharchenkov collided with a Norfolk State player as he drove inside and appeared to twist his ankle, falling forward to the immediate right of the basket.
After spending several minutes on the floor, Kharchenkov limped off the court with the help of UA trainer Justin Kokoskie and did not return to the UA bench the rest of the game.
Afterward UA coach Tommy Lloyd said Kharchenkov rolled his ankle trying to split a gap and may have stepped on a foot. Kharchenkov’s extended absence suggested he underwent an X-ray or other tests but Lloyd said he wasn’t sure.
“Obviously I’m hopeful he’ll play next week, but we’ll see,” Lloyd said.
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Without Kharchenkov, the Wildcats still had plenty to turn the game into a blowout from a close start.
Entering the game at 5-0 and ranked No. 2 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll, Arizona struggled early. The Wildcats missed five of their first six shots while Norfolk State took an 8-7 lead into the first media timeout.
The Spartans took six different leads in the first half, the last with 6:54 to go when Adrean Newton hit a jumper to give Norfolk State a 26-25 lead.
At that point, Norfolk State was shooting 47.6% and had made 4 of 6 3-pointers while UA shot 43.8% but missed both 3-pointers it took, one being the first 3-pointer center Krivas has tried in his college career.
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Lloyd said the Spartans’ gimmicky defense, which committed several defenders to the 3-point line to slow the Wildcats beyond the arc, took a while to get used to.
“I didn’t have on the basketball bingo card them coming out and playing a line-in-three defense,” Lloyd said. “I mean, I’ve seen the diamond, the whatever, the box in one, the triangle and two, but they played a line-in-three. So it just took the guys a little bit to figure out what was going on.”
But UA went on a 16-4 run from there to jump ahead by double digits the rest of the half, and the Spartans’ defense ultimately left enough gaps for the Wildcats to exploit inside and gain their massive advantage at the line.
In the first half, Krivas had 16 points and seven rebounds in the first half to shake Arizona out of some early doldrums and help give the Wildcats a 47-32 halftime lead.
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Krivas scored another four in the second half to tie the 20-point output he had against Belmont early in his freshman season of 2023-24. He wound up shooting 7 of 8 from the field and made 6 of 9 free throws while pulling down nine rebounds.
The junior center led UA’s march to the line all afternoon. The Wildcats hit 32 of 46 free-throws while the Spartans took only nine free throws — and hit only two of them. That left the Wildcats with 30 extra points scored at the line and tied the most free throws they had attempted under Lloyd, a mark they set against Southern in the 2022-23 season.
In the first half, Arizona made 26 trips to the free-throw line, the most it has attempted in the first half of a game since at least 1996-97 (that stat was not tracked beforehand). The Wildcats made 17 of 26 free throws, while Norfolk State was just 4 of 10, for a 13-point UA advantage at the line.
In the first half, Krivas made 6 of 10 free throws and tried — but missed — the first 3-point attempt of his college career. Brayden Burries added 10 points for the Wildcats, who shot 53.6% from the field but missed all five 3-pointers it tried.
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Senior wing Anthony Dell’Orso, who started the second half in Kharchenkov’s place, hit his first three free throws to extend his streak to 37 before missing two of its final six.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Krivas leads UA to win vs Norfolk State as Kharchenkov injured, leaves
