Oregon State came to town Friday, which meant it was another night of adjustments for the Arizona Wildcats.
Except this time they did so well enough to win.
Arizona avenged its lone loss of the Pac-12 season with a 57-34 win over Oregon State, holding the Beavers to just 28.6-percent shooting overall despite struggling early on the rebounding glass and against the Beavers’ zone defense and plodding offense.
The Wildcats also had some pain to deal with. Backup point guard Parker-Jackson Cartwright was out with a concussion – apparently watching the game at home on TV when he tweeted that analyst Bill Walton was one of the “funniest five people on the planet” – while T.J. McConnell and Kaleb Tarcezewski also left the game while appearing to be banged up but later returned.
Brandon Ashley led UA offensively with 12 points. UA shot just 40.8 percent but outrebounded OSU 37-27 after a the Beavers beat them 16-13 on the glass in the first half.
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Olaf Schaftenaar led OSU with eight points while UA kept the Beavers' leading scorer, Gary Payton II, to just six points on 3-for-13 shooting.
The win moved UA to 20-2 overall and 8-1 in the Pac-12 at the halfway point of conference play. The Wildcats are idle until they play at ASU on Feb. 7.
OSU dropped to 14-7 and 5-4.
Leading 24-13 at halftime, Arizona went scoreless for almost five minutes after halftime. OSU cut the Wildcats’ lead to 24-17 before Elliott Pitts finally put them on the board with a three-point play off his driving layup. Pitts then hit a three-pointer on UA’s next possession, and UA suddenly led 30-17.
After the Beavers cut UA’s lead to nine, things quickly unraveled for the Beavers. The were held scoreless for three minutes midway through the half while the Wildcats pushed their lead toward 20 points.
Struggling again early against Oregon State’s rebounding and rugged zone defense, Arizona went on an 11-0 run late in the first half to take a 24-13 halftime lead.
Arizona suffered its only loss of the Pac-12 season, on Jan. 11 in Corvallis, and the Beavers’ zone defense and rebounding edge made the first 15 minutes close Friday, as they did in the first meeting.
However, the Wildcats went on their 11-0 run while the Beavers missed their final six shots of the half. OSU also had five turnovers over the final 5:44 of the first half.
Arizona pulled ahead 17-13 entering the final five minutes and started to get the momentum going when forcing OSU into a shot-clock violation with 4:08 left.
Arizona struggled from the beginning again against OSU’s zone defense, almost as much as it did during its 58-56 loss to the Beavers in Corvallis earlier this month.
UA managed to take an 8-4 lead when McConnell hit a three-;pointer with 14 minutes left in the half but and later went ahead 13-8 on a layup from Stanley Johnson. But the Beavers came back and tied it at 13 with a three-pointer by Malcolm Duvivier and a tip-in by Gary Payton.
Out with his concussion, Jackson-Cartwright did not sit on the UA bench and has been undergoing “standard concussion protocol,” according to a UA spokesman.
UA said there is no timetable for his return as he follows the protocol. Previous concussion incidents suggest that's probably at least a week from the time of the incident, although UA does not play again after tonight until Feb. 7 at ASU.
Jackson-Cartwright was caught with an elbow from Oregon's Dillon Brooks toward the end of the UA-Oregon game Wednesday at McKale Center. He has averaged 10.3 minutes per game over all 21 UA games so far this season, the top reserve point guard behind T.J. McConnell.
Jackson-Cartwright did not sit on the UA team bench and apparently watched the game from home, if his tweet was any indication: “Bill Walton top 5 funniest people on planet.”
UA junior Gabe York is acting as a backup point guard tonight when McConnell is out of the game tonight.
