Arizona men’s basketball crushes Cal Poly in home opener

Home is where the heart is. And almost always a win in November.

Arizona cruised to a 104-84 victory over Cal Poly on Thursday night at ALKEME Arena at McKale Center in its home opener. It was the UA’s 52nd win in 53 November games at McKale since the 2012-13 season, the only loss coming two years ago to Duke.

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Motiejus Krivas scored a career-high 30 points, while Ivan Kharchenkov followed up his career-best 38 in the opener against UCLA with 16 along with 10 rebounds, seven assists and four steals. Caleb Holt had 21 points and eight rebounds and Cameron Holmes added 13.

Arizona shot 54.5 overall, held Cal Poly to 43.9 percent shooting, were plus-14 on the boards and forced 19 turnovers with 14 steals. It was the most steals in three years.

Cal Poly made 16 3-pointers on 37 attempts, eight from Hamad Mousa who went for 30.

Krivas was 10 of 13 from the field after only taking four shots against UCLA’s constant double team. He still got fouled plenty and made 10 of 12 from the line, adding eight rebounds and two blocks. Holt made 8 of 13 shots and Holmes, who didn’t play in the second half of the opener after looking gun shy from the perimeter, was 5 of 9.

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Arizona led 59-41 at halftime, its most points in the 1st half since scoring 61 in the 2023-24 opener against Morgan State. With a comfortable lead, the 2nd half was more of an open run than a scripted attack, which led to some sloppy play on both ends.

The lead dipped to 17 with 11:30 to go before the UA ripped off 12 in a row, with Krivas topping his previous high of 25 along the way. The run also featured Kharchenkov diving for a loose ball to call timeout with a 25-point lead, then after getting the whistle mugging to the crowd while still on the ground.

Cal Poly was called for five fouls in the first 56 seconds, one on the offensive end, as Arizona jumped out to an 11-3 lead that included a 3 by Bryce James, who have five points, two assists, two steals and a rebound in 17 minutes. He wasn’t the…

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Publish date : 2026-11-06 05:50:00

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