Motiejus Krivas leads Arizona to 93-69 exhibition win over San Francisco at McKale

The Arizona center had 20 points and six rebounds to lead Arizona to a 93-69 win over San Francisco in an exhibition game at McKale Center on Tuesday. He shot 6 for 7 from the field and hit 8 of 10 free throws when he was sent to the line...and, yet, his coach was looking for a little more.

That's the price of being a likely honors candidate this season.

"Honestly, I have a crazy high standard for Mo," UA coach Tommy Lloyd said. "I thought defensively he was just OK tonight. You know what I mean? I don't think he was as good in some of those downhill situations. Usually he's elite in those."

Still, it was plenty to help keep the Wildcats ahead of their West Coast Conference opponent, which visited McKale in large part because former UA senior associate AD Brent Blaylock became USF's athletic director in May.

The Wildcats shot 53.2% from the field and, while they allowed USF to shoot 45.0%, UA scored 25 points off 19 San Francisco turnovers. 

"Fourteen of our 16 players are new, so I'm probably the crazy one to agree to come and play this as our first college game," USF coach Chris Gurlufsen said. "We have 11 freshmen, but I love this. This is exactly what we we needed. There's no substitution for for live bullets, and I don't know more physical team in the country than the one that we just played, and that's a credit to Tommy (Lloyd) his staff, the way they do things.

"They have an unbelievable ability to knock you off your spot."

For Lloyd, even though the Wildcats had three exhibition games in Lithuania, the game was also a chance to run some important tests.

"It was a great experience and you try not to get caught up in the minutia," Lloyd said. "We just needed reps. ... and see how guys play in spontaneous situations, I think it was great. I'm excited to break down the film. I'm sure there was a lot of really good things, and I'm sure there's a lot of a lot of other things we can learn from as well."

The Wildcats were playing without forward RJ Godfrey, who remains ineligible pending the Georgia "five for five" lawsuit he is a plaintiff in, while freshman center Endurance "Endi" Aiyamenkhue also did not play because of a lower leg injury.

Without Godfrey at power forward, the Wildcats started with a small lineup as they did during their exhibition trip to Lithuania in August: Derek Dixon at point guard, with Bryce James and Caleb Holt on the wings, Ivan Kharchenkov at power forward and Krivas at center.

Kharchenkov had 18 points and five rebounds, while Holt had 10 of his 17 points in the second half.

In what is the first of three McKale exhibitions after the NCAA began allowing a third exhibition game this season, Lloyd experimented heavily with his lineup as the game went on.

He inserted freshman wing Cameron Holmes for James after four minutes, then later subbed freshman forward Maksim Brnovic for Kharchenkov, and later went with JJ Mandaquit at point guard. Kharchenkov briefly left the court to go to the locker room after taking a blow to the midsection during the middle of the first half.

The Wildcats briefly played Mandaquit and Dixon together in the backcourt in the first half, expanding their lead from 23-13 to 30-26 during that time. Lloyd wound up playing 10 of his 11 available scholarship players during the first half. He played all 11 by the end of the game, plus three walk-ons.

"We're figuring that all out," Lloyd said of his potential rotation. "There's been a lot of moving parts, so it's just kind of figuring out what's going to put the pieces in the right place, and what you think might be that answer today might not be the answer in three weeks from now."

The Wildcats will host San Diego State on Friday in their second exhibition game, then play Eastern Washington on Oct. 23 at McKale Center before opening the regular season on Nov. 2 against UCLA in Las Vegas.