Arizona men’s basketball vs. Long Beach State final score: Wildcats run past Beach in 1st round

SALT LAKE CITY—This March is already higher than the final one.

Second-seeded Arizona wrapped a 16-0 run round halftime to run away from No. 15 Lengthy Seashore State, successful 85-65 within the first spherical of the NCAA Event within the Delta Heart on Thursday afternoon.

It was the UA’s seventh consecutive NCAA win in Salt Lake Metropolis and comes a yr after getting upset within the first spherical by No. 15 Princeton in Sacramento. The Wildcats (26-8) will play No. 7 seed Dayton (25-7) in Saturday’s second spherical after the Flyers rallied from down 17 within the second half to beat No. 10 Nevada 63-60.

Arizona had 5 gamers in double figures, bettering to 17-1 this season when having not less than 5 get to 10 or extra factors. Main the best way was Kylan Boswell, who made 4 3-pointers and scored a career-high 20 whereas including eight assists.

Caleb Love went for 18, his most since Senior Day in opposition to Oregon, including a career-high 11 rebounds (for his second profession double-double) and 5 assists, whereas Oumar Ballo went for 11 factors and 13 boards to notch his 13^th double-double within the final 14 video games.

Pelle Larsson added 15 and Keshad Johnson 13 because the UA shot 41.7 %, that quantity closely impacted by lots of early misses on the rim because it labored to penetrate Lengthy Seashore’s 3-2 zone. It was 13 of 35 from 3, probably the most triples in class historical past in a postseason recreation and probably the most makes an attempt all season.

Lengthy Seashore, which made a miracle run via the Huge West Event after coach Dan Monson was fired going into it, shot 33.3 and have been 3 of 17 from 3. The Seashore (21-15) outrebounded the UA 50-47, grabbing 17 offensive boards and outscoring the Wildcats within the paint 38-32.

The UA led 41-35 on the break, holding Lengthy Seashore scoreless the ultimate 2:34 of the primary half. It scored the primary 9 of the second half, making it 16 in a row courting again to 2:14 left earlier than halftime, to go up 50-35. The Seashore obtained two free throws to finish their drought solely to see Arizona run off 5 extra together with a Larsson 3 to make it 55-37 and drive Monson to name a second timeout in lower than 4 minutes.

The lead swelled to 21 on a Love triple with 13:46 remaining, and Larsson’s third longball made it 65-43 with 11:08 to go to set the college tourney document.

Lengthy Seashore, which began the second half 2 of twenty-two, went on an 8-1 run to get inside 66-51 however might get no nearer. A breakaway dunk by Boswell made it 75-53 with 6:14 remaining, prompting one other Lengthy Seashore timeout that allowed Arizona’s bench to present Boswell shit for his type.

If ever there was an indication of how relieved this crew was to get previous that first recreation, particularly after the way it began.

pointer till greater than six minutes into the sport. The Wildcats obtained to the rim very often on drives however stored lacking, beginning 2 of 14 from contained in the arc.

The UA led 17-9 with 13:09 left within the first half earlier than going ice chilly, lacking 10 photographs in a row whereas turning it over twice. That fueled a 13-0 Lengthy Seashore run to go up 22-17 with 8:40 remaining earlier than the half.

A scoring drought of greater than 5 minutes when Love drove and was fouled in transition, sparking a 7-0 run with the opposite two makes coming off steals to place Arizona again up 24-22. However Lengthy Seashore fired proper again and took its largest lead at 31-26 on a Jadon Jones 3 with 4:26 remaining.

After that the Seashore solely made two extra photographs as Arizona completed the half on a 15-4 run that included a mixture of drives, 3s and journeys to the road.