Arizona 70, Washington 52
TUCSON, Ariz. -- Solomon Hill led Arizona with 19 points as Arizona swept Washington for the first time in seven seasons, beating the Huskies 70-52 at McKale Center on Wednesday night.
Hill scored 14 points in the first half for the 12th-ranked Wildcats, who improved to 22-4 overall and 10-4 in the Pac-12, a half-game behind Oregon. The Huskies (14-13, 6-8) have lost eight of their past 10 games and dropped their ninth consecutive contest to a ranked team.
Arizona, which held Washington to 36.8 percent shooting in a win in Seattle last month, limited the Huskies to 30.8 percent (20 of 65, including 1 of 11 from 3-point range) Wednesday night.
Arizona point guard Mark Lyons fueled a 25-12 run to end the first half, and the Wildcats poured it on after leading 33-25 at halftime.
The second-half scoring burst came from Nick Johnson, who scored nine points in a 3 1/2-minute flurry, with the last basket in that stretch giving Arizona a 49-29 lead with 13:38 left. Two of Johnson's baskets in that span came on fast-break assists from Lyons as the Wildcats excelled in transition.
Arizona led by as many as 22. Washington trimmed its deficit to 14 by the final media timeout but never mounted a serious threat.
Johnson scored 12 points, all in the second half. Lyons scored 12 in the first half and finished with 14 before fouling out with 6:55 to go.
C.J. Wilcox had 15 points to lead Washington. Abdul Gaddy added 12.
Arizona coach Sean Miller started senior wing Kevin Parrom for freshman power forward for the second consecutive game. Miller said he made the move for two reasons: to take advantage of Parrom's experience and to help cure recent slow starts at the beginning of each half.
Washington, however, had the better of it early in a defensive struggle, similar to the teams' first meeting. Arizona won 57-53 in Seattle when both teams shot less than 37 percent from the field.
The Huskies took a 13-8 lead on an alley-oop dunk by Shawn Kemp Jr. with 11:05 to go in the first half Wednesday, and Arizona failed to crack the 10-point barrier until Lyons hit two free throws with 8:07 left to cut the deficit to 13-10. At that point, the teams had combined to make only 9 of 31 shots.
Lyons got hot, scoring 10 consecutive points for Arizona, including a 3-pointer with 6:34 to go for an 18-16 lead. That woke up the Wildcats, who expanded the lead to 33-25 on a free throw by Kaleb Tarczewski with 32.1 seconds left.
NOTES: Freshman guard Gabe York hadn't played in the past four games -- and had appeared in only three conference contests -- but he entered at 13:32 of the first half. Miller said earlier this week that he wanted to give York a shot over reserve junior guard Jordin Mayes. ... Washington center Aziz N'Diaye picked up a technical foul with 50.6 seconds left in the first half when he tossed Parrom into the courtside photographers after they scrapped for a rebound underneath the Arizona basket. ... Miller, in his fourth season with the Wildcats, has a losing record against two Pac-12 teams. He is 2-3 against Colorado and 4-5 vs. Washington. ... Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott attended the game.
