Azuolas Tubelis collected 19 points and 11 rebounds as No. 4 Arizona overcame an early 13-point deficit and dominated the second half in a 91-79 victory over Arizona State on Monday night in Tempe, Ariz.
Tubelis posted his second straight double-double and shot 7 of 12 from the floor as the Wildcats (20-2, 10-1 Pac-12) posted their fourth straight victory. Arizona outscored the Sun Devils 44-22 to start the second half, building a 26-point lead.
Bennedict Mathurin added 18 points for the Wildcats, who shot 56.7 percent on Monday after shooting a paltry 32.2 percent in their 67-56 win over Arizona State on Jan. 29 in Tucson, Ariz.
Pelle Larsson added 14, Oumar Ballo contributed 13, Dalen Terry chipped in 12 and Christian Koloko finished with 10 for the Wildcats, who also racked up 52 points in the paint.
Jay Heath and Marreon Jackson scored 16 points apiece for Arizona State (7-14, 3-8), which was unable to sustain its quick start after outlasting then-No. 3 UCLA for an 87-84 triple-overtime win on Saturday.
Kimani Lawrence and DJ Horne added 11 apiece for the Sun Devils, who shot 42.3 percent from the floor in their fifth straight game against a ranked opponent. They dropped four of those five contests.
Horne hit two 3-pointers and Arizona State made five 3-pointers in the first 3:08 for a 14-1 lead. However, Arizona ripped off 11 straight points to get within 16-14 on Mathurin’s 3-pointer with 12:46 left in the half and took the lead for good when Larsson’s 3-pointer made it 32-31 with 3:53 remaining.
After taking a 40-36 lead by halftime, Arizona started the second half with a 9-2 burst that pushed the lead to 11 on Mathurin’s transition layup with 17:59 left. Consecutive dunks by Koloko and another dunk by Terry extended the gap to 55-40 less than two minutes later.
The Wildcats took a 72-53 lead on consecutive layups by Ballo with 10:06 remaining, and a dunk by Tubelis made it 84-58 with 5:55 left.
–Field Level Media
