After beating three ranked opponents in its first five games, something no college basketball team had done in more than 35 years, Arizona soared to No. 2 in the Associated Press Top 25. Getting to the top spot would require some help.
That assistance came in the form of fellow Big 12 school Iowa State winning handily at No. 1 Purdue on Saturday afternoon. All the Wildcats had to do was pick up a fourth ranked win, particularly in impressive fashion, and it could rise to first on Monday when the next poll came out.
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Arizona made its case for No. 1 with a 97-68 over No. 20 Auburn. It’s the fifth-largest margin of victory for the Wildcats over a ranked opponent in school history and largest since beating No. 19 Western Kentucky by 39 in 2002.
Koa Peat had 18 points on 8-of-11 shooting while Jaden Bradley and Brayden Burries had 16 points each and Ivan Kharchenkov had 12 points, five rebounds and eight assists for the Wildcats (8-0), who shot 61.2 percent overall and 63.6 percent in the second half.
The 61.2 percent was Arizona’s best field goal rate against a ranked opponent since 2016.
Auburn (7-3) shot 33.3 percent, 28.6 percent in the second half, and its 15 turnovers were converted into 21 points for Arizona. Tahad Pettiford had a career-high 30 points on 10-of-19 shooting for the Tigers, while the rest of the team was 11 of 44.
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Arizona led 44-32 at halftime and by the first media timeout of the 2nd half the edge was 26. The Wildcats outscored Auburn 18-2 coming out of the locker room, keeping the Tigers without a field goal for the first 5-plus minutes.
The only player Arizona couldn’t stop was Pettiford, who had nine straight points for Auburn at one point including a 4-point play to get within 69-45 with 12:41 left.
The Wildcats didn’t miss consecutive shots after halftime until midway through the second half, starting 11 of 12. Auburn, on the other hand, started 0 for 7 and went almost six minutes without a field goal yet kept the margin from getting much bigger because of an abundance of fouls called.
After a relatively foul-free first half, with Arizona only attempting one free throws, the second half saw the officials get much more involved. The teams combined for 25 fouls and 32 foul shots, compared to 29 field goals.
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Arizona’s first 10 points were in the paint, either on drives, dump offs or dunks, for an early 4-point lead. Auburn followed with nine in a row to go up 15-10, taking advantage of four UA turnovers, only to see the Wildcats capitalize on four Tigers giveaways en route to a 12-0 run and a 7-point advantage.
Auburn missed nine straight shots while Arizona went on a 15-0 run to lead 39-21 with 3:43 left before halftime. The lead got to 20 before the Tigers finished the first half on an 8-0 run.
Arizona heads east for its next game, taking on No. 12 Alabama in Birmingham next Saturday. The Wildcats beat the Crimson Tide in Phoenix during the the 2023-24 season.
