Caleb Holt’s breakout game leads Arizona men’s basketball past Auburn

Power conference teams, take note: tread lightly when considering scheduling a home-and-home with Arizona.

For the second year in a row the Wildcats ended a lengthy home win streak against non-league foes, beating Auburn 80-69 on Friday night. The Tigers had won 71 consecutive nonconference game at Neville Arena, a streak that went back to 2016.

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Caleb Holt, back in his home state, had a breakout performance with 24 points, nine rebounds and five steals while Ivan Kharchenkov went for 19 points and 8 rebounds and Motiejus Krivas had 16 points, 12 rebounds and four assists. Holt was 4 of 6 from 3-point range after missing 10 of 11 triples in Arizona’s first three games.

The Wildcats (3-1) turned it over 12 times, twice as many as in Tuesday’s win over an NAU team that almost upset Kentucky on the road Friday night, and had 12 shots blocked (six by Auburn center Narcisse Ngoy) but still shot 44.4 percent overall including 50 percent in the second half.

Auburn (2-1) shot 34.8 percent, and while it made 11 3s it took 31 and was just 12 of 35 from inside the arc. Junior guard Tahad Pettiford, who came in averaging 22.5 points per game, had nine on 4-of-14 shooting.

Arizona outrebounded the Tigers by 12 and finished up 16 in points in the paint despite all the blocked shots.

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Coach Tommy Lloyd made a lineup change, with JJ Mandaquit replacing Bryce James. The Washington transfer had six points (all on free throws) in 31 minutes while James did not play, nor did backup center Ugnius Jarusevicius. The UA bench logged only 27 minutes with four points, two each from Maksim Brnovic and Evan Otten.

Arizona led 36-32 at halftime despite having nine shots blocked and turning it over eight times. The first shot of the 2nd half was swatted as well but the Wildcats still opened on 10-0 run to lead by 14 less than three minutes in.

But like in the 1st half when the UA would get a little separation, Auburn quickly scored on consecutive possessions to get back in it. A 10-2…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/caleb-holt-breakout-game-leads-043735195.html

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Publish date : 2026-11-14 04:37:00

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