Arizona comes alive in second half to down UCF

Caleb Love led five Arizona players in double-digit scoring with 16 points as the Wildcats remained perfect in Big 12 play with an 88-80 victory Saturday night over UCF in Tucson, Ariz.

The Wildcats (10-5, 4-0 Big 12) won their sixth consecutive game while the Knights (11-4, 2-2) have lost two of their last three games after a six-game winning streak.

Love also had eight rebounds and six assists.

Anthony Dell’Orso had 15 points behind making all nine of his free-throw attempts. Henri Veesaar scored 10 of his 14 points off the bench in the second half, when Arizona pulled away after leading 45-42 at halftime.

Tobe Awaka finished with 11 points and five rebounds while KJ Lewis had 10 points.

Keyshawn Hall led UCF with 22 and Darius Johnson finished with 18.

The Wildcats took a 33-19 lead with 8:14 left in the first half when Love made his third 3-pointer of the game.

UCF later put together an 8-2 run, with six points by Rokas Jocius, to cut the lead to 38-32 with 4:29 left.

Arizona made one field goal the rest of the half, allowing UCF to tie the game at 42 with 38 seconds left before intermission.

A three-point play by Trey Townsend closed the scoring of the half with 14.2 seconds left.

UCF had 12 offensive rebounds in the first half that led to 11 second-chance points.

Veesaar had six points during Arizona’s 10-2 run that built a 63-52 lead with 12:42 left.

Dell’Orso scored eight straight points for Arizona, including five on free throws, that helped the Wildcats take an 82-65 lead with 6:49 left.

Arizona made 23 of 29 shots from the free-throw line while UCF was 12 of 17.

UCF cut the lead to 87-78 following a layup by Hall with 1:17 remaining.

The Knights missed four straight shots afterward before Hall made a tip-in with one second left.

Arizona missed its last six field-goal attempts over the last 5:07 but held on for the win behind its free-throw shooting.

–Field Level Media