Arizona men’s basketball crushes Eastern Washington to finish exhibition slate

Bring on the games that count.

Arizona wrapped up its exhibition schedule with a dominant 85-54 win over Eastern Washington on Friday night at ALKEME Arena at McKale Center. The Wildcats won their three preseason contests by an average of 23.3 points.

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Caleb Holt led all scorers with 21 points along with five rebounds, three steals and two assists but also five turnovers. Motiejus Krivas had 12 points with eight rebounds, three assists and three blocks in only 17 minutes, while Ugnius Jarusevicius (12), Ivan Kharchenkov (11) and JJ Mandaquit (11) also hit double figures in scoring. No player logged more than 24 minutes.

The UA shot 52.4 percent overall, made nine of 23 3-pointers—getting at least one from five different players for the third straight exhibition—and held Eastern Washington to 34.5 percent shooting.

A noticeably overmatched Eagles team, led by former Gonzaga coach Dan Monson, had no answer for Arizona’s speed, size and athleticism. The Wildcats forced 19 turnovers, turning those into 20 points, were plus-14 on the boards and had a 48-32 edge in points in the paint.

Arizona finished with more assists (23) than the Eagles had field goals (20).

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Holt had two turnovers in the opening minute, three in the first six, yet also had 15 points before halftime. That included a personal 7-0 run late in the first half that saw him score on a layup, steal the inbound and score again—forcing a timeout—then collect the defensive rebound before hitting a 3-pointer.

Arizona led 50-26 at halftime after being up as many as 31 and maintained a 30-point lead the final 15:16.

The 2026-27 season regular season begins Nov. 2 with Arizona taking on old Pac-12 foe UCLA in Las Vegas. It’s the finale of a 3-game series that saw the Bruins win in Phoenix in 2024 and Arizona beat UCLA last November at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles.

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/arizona-men-basketball-crushes-eastern-040457229.html

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Publish date : 2026-10-24 04:04:00

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