Arizona opens Pac 12 play with win over ASU

By Francisco Romero

The Arizona Wildcats opened conference play (Pac 12) with a 94-82 win over Arizona State University on Sunday night.

It was tough loss for the Sun Devils as their last loss came almost a month ago (December 12 vs. Kentucky).

It was also the first conference game for ASU’s newly hired head coach Bobby Hurley.

Gabe York led the Wildcats with 22 points, while freshman Alonzo Tried added 20 for the No. 8 ranked Arizona.

York finished the game making 4-of-7 three-pointers.

The Sun Devils had four players scored in double figures; their leading scorer was Tra Holder who finished the game with 24 points.

Arizona led at the half by only 6 points (41-35).

“We knew that we were going to be challenged, the fact that we won in here this year is something that we are very, very proud of because we beat a really good basketball team,” said Arizona’s head coach Sean Miller after the game.

ASU finished the game with 46 percent shooting from the field (29-63); they made 8-of-25 three-pointers.

“They are a tough to defend and for the most part we did a good job once we got through maybe the first ten minutes of the first half.”

Sunday’s game marked the return of senior center Kaleb Tarczewski, who had been out of action for eight games.

Tarczewski came off the bench, he played 15 minutes and scored eight points on 2-4 shooting, he made 4-out-of-5 free throws.

Arizona improves to (13-1, 1-0 Pac 12), while the Sun Devils’ record stands now at (10-4, 0-1 Pac 12).

The Sun Devils will travel to Los Angeles to face the Trojans of USC on Thursday, while the Wildcats will play No. 25 UCLA in Los Angeles.