Arizona tries to sweep through Bay Area (Jan 01, 2017)
No. 18 Arizona will be shooting for a sweep of its San Francisco Bay Area trip when it plays at Stanford on Sunday, and the return of point guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright makes that an attainable goal.
The Wildcats (12-2, 1-0 in the Pac-12) rebounded from a horrible start at California on Friday, when they missed 16 of their first 19 shots and had only six points nearly 11 minutes into the game.
Arizona wound up beating the Bears 67-62, and the return of Jackson-Cartwright, who missed the previous six games with an ankle injury, was a major reason Arizona was able to recover.
"We would not have won if Parker didn't play," Arizona coach Sean Miller said.
Freshman Kobi Simmons scored 10 of his 14 points during a second-half Arizona run that put the Wildcats ahead, but he was acutely aware of Jackson-Cartwright's influence.
"He made a huge difference," Simmons said. "He affected everything -- spacing the floor, driving, finding the open man."
Jackson-Cartwright did not start in his first game back, but played 20 minutes and was in the game when the Wildcats had their second-half surge.
He scored only two points, but he had four assists, three rebounds, no turnovers and an obvious effect on Arizona's offense. The 5-foot-11 junior provided the maturity and playmaking that was lacking in an Arizona starting lineup that includes three freshmen.
"If you bring a veteran team to the arena with you that's one thing, guys who have been through the wars of conference play," Miller said. "But we brought a bunch of guys into tonight's game who had never played a conference game."
The three starting freshmen made their presence felt in the second half. Besides Simmons' 14 points, freshman Lauri Markkanen, Arizona's leading scorer this season at 15.9 points per game, added 13 points, and freshman Rawle Alkins chipped in with 10.
Junior center Dusan Ristic led the Wildcats with 16 points on 8-of-10 shooting.
While the Wildcats are feeling pretty good about their uplifting victory at Cal, Stanford (8-5) is trying to recover from a disheartening 98-93 home loss on Friday to Arizona State, a team that was 7-6 and picked to finish 11th in the Pac-12.
The Cardinal had some outstanding offensive performances.
Marcus Sheffield scored a career-high 35 points, Reid Travis added 21 points, and Dorian Pickens scored 18 as Stanford shot 53.3 percent from the field and turned the ball over only seven times.
Somehow Stanford still lost.
The problem was on the defensive end, and first-year coach Jerod Haase cited a lack of emotional intensity.
"We have to be able to play with passion and have a greater sense of urgency," Haase said. "With Arizona, obviously, if we don't have that sense of urgency on every single play and every situation, just trying to do the right thing and say we're playing hard is not going to be enough. So that's something we're going to have to solve."
The Sun Devils hit 51 percent of their shots, including 13 of 24 3-point shots.
"I take that on my back," Travis said. "I feel I didn't have the guys ready on defense."
The Cardinal was 6-1 following a 14-point victory over Seton Hall, but they have lost four of six games since, with the home loss to Arizona State being particularly damaging.
"We can absolutely rebound from this, but I take no consolation," Haase said. "I am not going to hang my head and act like woe is me. We are going to get to work and find out what the solutions are and work until they are figured out."
Sunday's 5 p.m. game at Maples Pavilion may indicate whether Haase has found any answers.
