Kerr Kriisa hits six 3-pointers as No. 5 Arizona beats Montana State, 85-64

That is, don’t have too much fun in the first place.

Before hitting 6 of 9 3-pointers to lead the Wildcats to their 85-64 win over Montana State on Tuesday at McKale Center, Kriisa was coming off a pretty rough week at a time when the Wildcats celebrated two wins, including a Top 10 showdown against Tennessee.

Kriisa asked out of UA's Dec. 13 game against Texas A&M Corpus Christi after four minutes because of an illness and, though he said he felt fine against Tennessee four days later, Kriisa shot just 1 for 7 from 3-point range against the Volunteers

“I didn’t feel good (against Texas A&M Corpus Christi) and there wasn’t a point to push myself in that game because we had Tennessee coming up,” Kriisa said. “It wasn’t a very good feeling.”

On Tuesday, Kriisa said he felt “way better” and, except for a technical foul he picked up that UA coach Tommy Lloyd was not too thrilled about, his 18-point performance reflected that.

Taking advantage of outside looks created in part by Montana State’s emphasis on slowing down the Wildcats’ high-low post duo of Azuolas Tubelis and Oumar Ballo, the Wildcats hit 10 of 25 3-poitners.

While Kriisa was 6 for 9 from long range, Courtney Ramey hit 2 of 6 while Cedric Henderson and Pelle Larsson each threw in one 3-pointer against three attempts. Combined with the fact that the Bobcats hit just 3 of 24 3-pointers – including none of their 10 second half tries – the Wildcats had plenty of room to ultimately gain their 21-point victory.

Except it just didn’t always feel like a 21-point win for the Wildcats (11-1), in part because human nature really did strike many of them. Out of sync, or energy, or something, after that win over Tennessee, the Wildcats led just 16-15 with 12:33 left in the first half, and weren't able to put the game away until the final two minutes.

“The biggest thing is regardless of who we play, whether they're Tennessee or Montana State, they’re still good teams,” Henderson said. “We can't come out flat and that's what we did. It’s kind of like a trap game. You have the big name and then you turn around and play the team that you're like, `Oh, this should be an easy one.’ But they're all good teams. We play good teams. They’re good players.”

That would include Montana State center Jubrile Belo, who had 18 points on 7-for-8 shooting, and former Washington wing RaeQuan Battle, who had 17 points even though he missed all seven 3-pointers he took.

Those guys helped keep the Bobcats (7-6) in the game nearly the entire evening.

In the first half, Kriisa helped keep UA ahead by hitting 4 of 6 3-pointers before halftime, with one of them giving the Wildcats their first double-digit lead, 31-19, with 6:26 left in the half.

But Montana State crept back within three points, getting a four-point play from Battle with 2:35 to go and a short jumper from Belo to cut it to 40-37 with just under two minutes left in the first half.

Arizona led 44-37 at halftime and it wasn’t hard to imagine what Lloyd’s halftime speech was like.

“I understand the connection everybody's trying to make, but when you sit in my seat and you're trying to drive a culture, standards…” Lloyd said after the game. “We’ve got to meet those standards, no matter who we're playing. I mean, come on, the college guys play 35-40 games (a season), if they're lucky. You’ve got to be excited to play.

“I'm not saying we didn't play hard, but I don't know if we played hard enough. I just feel like our teamness at times can be a little disconnected and I don't like that feel. It just doesn't sit well with me. It doesn't mean I'm mad at the guys or anything like that. But there just has to be a feel with how you operate on a day to day basis. … it’s hard to define what that is, but I didn't feel it today.”

The Wildcats continued to let Montana State hang around for much of the second half, too.

Arizona pushed its lead into double digits soon after halftime but Montana State pulled within 59-52 with 10 minutes left on a sequence that appeared particularly dispiriting for the Wildcats. After Battle threw down an alley-oop dunk, UA’s Pelle Larsson lost the ball on Arizona’s ensuing possession, and Montana State’s Darius Brown then quickly scored inside.

Arizona was shooting just 31.3% through the first 10 minutes of the second half, though Montana State kept missing 3s. The Bobcats hit just 3 of 14 3s in the first half and missed all eight they took through the first 16 minutes of the second half.

But the Wildcats finally moved definitively ahead over the final eight minutes. They led 72-55 by the time Kriisa came back to hit his sixth 3-pointer with 7:34 left and kept up a double-digit lead the rest of the way.

It was enough for a comfortable winning margin but for many teams but maybe not enough for the No. 5 team in the country, one that has lost only five games under Lloyd since the beginning of last season.

“I think there's a lot of canned excuses we can use to make ourselves feel better, but for some reason they don't work with me," Lloyd said. "I just want us to have a better feel and play better basketball.

“We won by 20. But you still have standards that that you’ve got to hit. I want those standards hit more often because I want this team to be really successful this year.”