Aggressiveness helps No. 4 Arizona pull away from Alabama in physical game in Phoenix

Normally mild-mannered with officials, the Wildcats’ third-year men's basketball coach picked up his first technical foul of his head coaching career, complaining at least non-verbally over a non-call in in the first half of Arizona’s 87-74 win over Alabama at the Footprint Center.

“I didn’t say anything but (the official) said I looked maybe at the head of officials” who was sitting courtside, Lloyd said.

Lloyd was out of whack. The Wildcats were out of whack. And Alabama was out of whack.

The two “UAs” entered the nightcap of Jerry Colangelo's Hall of Fame Series with two of the most efficient offenses in college basketball, yet beat each other up defensively so much that the game was mired in a 54-54 tie midway through the second half and continued on for two and a half hours, with the overwhelmingly pro-Arizona crowd finally filing out only about 20 minutes before midnight.

It wasn’t until Arizona wing Pelle Larsson dove, literally, into the muck of it all that the Wildcats began behaving somewhat like their usual selves.

Up 41-40 at halftime but unable to pull away over the first 10 minutes of the second half, Arizona began a game-changing 10-0 run after Larsson stole the ball from Alabama’s Grant Nelson. With the ball in Arizona’s possession, guard Caleb Love then missed a close-in shot jumper, but Larsson grabbed the offensive rebound and put it back to give Arizona a 56-54 lead.

“It was awesome,” Lloyd said. “We just made a late call from the bench to pick up (Nelson), who’s a good player but generally not a guy who brings the ball down the court and Pelle can really pressure the ball. So Pelle went up there, got after him a little bit, he mishandled it and Pelle made an incredible hustle play.”

Despite appearing to reaggravate an injury to his right hand suffered when he hit the floor hard against Purdue last Saturday, Larsson didn’t hold back on Wednesday.

“Plays like that are going to come every game and you’ve just gotta be the most aggressive guy and dive for the ball first,” Larsson said. “l think we did that multiple times.”

The Wildcats turned Larsson's bucket into an 10-0 run, getting a free throw from Oumar Ballo and two free throws from Larsson plus a driving layup by KJ Lewis. After Alabama’s Rylan Griffen missed a 3-pointer, Larsson also returned for a free throw and a pullup jumper with eight minutes left.

Alabama finally ended Arizona’s run with eight minutes left when Jaden Bradley fouled Nelson, who hit both ends of an ensuing one-and-one. The Tide cut UA's lead to six with just over three minutes left but trailed most of the game by double digits after Arizona's 10-0 run.

The Wildcats wound up shooting a still-uncharacteristically low 44.8% in the second half — and they still only set up five of their 13 second-half field goals with assists, with their total of 14 assists for the game their second-lowest of the season. But Arizona scored 15 points off turnovers in the second half, and 26 for the game, often scoring quickly on the break.

“We definitely got our transition game going in the second half and Alabama tries to rebound five guys (on its possessions), which makes it incredibly challenging,” Lloyd said. “They literally, at the start of each half, were just pounding us on the glass. Embarrassing. Fortunately, our guys stepped up and responded.”

Arizona wound up outrebounding Alabama 48-38 and limited the Crimson Tide’s usual offensive rebounding advantage.

Ranked No. 1 in Kenpom offensive efficiency entering the game, Alabama (6-5) was shooting 39.1% from 3-point range and 57.0% from inside the arc. But on Thursday, Alabama shot just 33.8% overall and hit 8 of 40 (20%) of its 3-point attempts.

The Tide also scored 13 second-chance points off 15 offensive rebounds, while Arizona scored 17 second-chance points off 17 offensive rebounds.

Alabama couldn’t just throw all those missed shots back in, couldn’t hang on to the ball and committed even more fouls than Arizona — a total of 25, with big men Mohamed Wague and Nick Pringle fouling out.

“Our big points of emphasis were keeping them off the free throw line and winning the rebounding battle,” Alabama coach Nate Oats said. “We didn't do a great job on the glass and obviously it didn't help that we didn't shoot particularly well. And we turned the ball too much.

“I thought their physicality bothered us. They're a tough, physical, hard-playing group … They got some buckets and we lost our momentum. We never really gained it back.”

An Arizona recruiting target while in the transfer portal last spring, Nelson led Alabama in scoring with 17 points and five rebounds but was a microcosm of its inefficiency, making only 3 of 15 3-pointers.

While Larsson had 16 points, six rebounds and two assists for Arizona, center Oumar Ballo had a double double of 16 points and 12 rebounds to lead the Wildcats.

“We obviously wanted to pound it inside and take advantage of ‘O,’ “ Lloyd said. “O is coming on. I’ve been around O a long time and I think we’re on the precipice here… he had some balls kind of close to him that didn’t go his way but he’s a physical force and he demands a lot of attention.”

In the first half, Alabama had more success on the glass, powering its 9-0 start by outrebounding Arizona 10-3 through the first three-plus minutes and scoring five points off five offensive rebounds.

But Arizona gradually pulled within one possession midway through the first half and tied it at 23 on a layup from Bradley, who transferred from Alabama after last season.

The teams were separated by only one possession for nearly the final eight minutes of the first half, with Lloyd picking up his rare technical foul when he appeared upset about a no-call.

The technical cost Arizona a made free throw by Alabama’s Sam Walters, who missed another but it turned out to be inconsequential after Arizona’s second-half turnaround.

“It was fine,” Lloyd also said of the technical foul call. “Rob (Rorke) is a really good official. “Getting a technical is not something I ever aspire to but it happened. And hey, we’ll move on. I’m not gonna dwell on it.”

Lloyd and the Wildcats have no choice, really. They’ll travel straight from Phoenix to Las Vegas on Thursday to prepare for a final nonconference game against 14th-ranked Florida Atlantic on Saturday at 1 p.m.