Arizona @ Utah preview

Arizona at Utah

Last Meeting ( Jan 5, 2017 ) Utah 56, Arizona 66

Arizona has found its footing, winning eight straight games since a 0-3 trip to the Bahamas over Thanksgiving weekend. The 16th-ranked Wildcats now look to continue that roll Thursday night at Utah in their first Pac-12 road test.

Coach Sean Miller’s crew opened conference play Saturday night with a hard-fought 84-78 home win over previously undefeated Arizona State. The usual stud suspects – freshman forward Deandre Ayton and junior guard Allonzo Trier – scored 23 points apiece and combined for seven assists. The 7-foot-1 Ayton also snatched a season-high 19 rebounds and blocked three shots to earn his second Pac-12 Player of the Week award in the last month. The Runnin’ Utes, meanwhile, also have been on a roll of late, winning four of their last five, including Pac-12-opening road wins last week at Oregon (66-56) and Oregon State (66-64).

TV: 9 p.m. ET, ESPN

ABOUT ARIZONA (11-3, 1-0 Pac-12): Ayton, the highly-touted blue-chip big man from the Bahamas, has been as advertised, notching 10 double-doubles in 14 games so far while leading the team in field-goal percentage (61.9) and ranking fourth nationally with 11.9 rebounds per game. He also has a team-most 21 blocks on the season and was a big reason why Arizona State hit less than 43.9 percent of its shots from the field (37.9) on Saturday night for the first time this season. Trier, meanwhile, ranks second in the Pac-12 with a team-best 21.3-point average and is shooting 54.2 percent from the field while guard Rawle Alkins (14.2 points), center Dusan Ristic (10.0 points, 6.1 rebounds) and guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright (7.1 points, 4.8 assists) also are key night-in and night-out contributors.

ABOUT UTAH (10-3, 2-0): The Utes’ win Friday at Oregon was their first victory in Eugene since 1951, and two nights later, they capped their first-ever Oregon trip sweep with the two-point win over the Beavers. Balanced Utah has five players averaging double figures, led by forward David Collette (13.2 points) and guard Justin Bibbins (13.1), who has averaged 20.7 and 4.7 assists over his last three games while connecting on 16-of-26 3-point attempts. The Utes surrender the fewest points (66.7) in the conference, and opponents are shooting only 40.4 percent from the field and 30.1 percent from 3-point range – both figures ranking second in the Pac-12.

TIP-INS

1. Arizona leads the series 31-29 but has won 10 of the 11 games since Utah joined the Pac-12 in 2011.

2. Behind Ayton and Ristic, the Wildcats rank second in the Pac-12 with a 6.2 average rebound margin while F Tyler Rawson is averaging a team-most 6.4 boards for Utah, which ranks 10th in the conference with a 2.0 average margin on the glass.

3. The Utes are shooting a Pac-12-best 77.9 percent from the free-throw line while the Wildcats are the conference’s top 3-point shooting team at 39.5 percent.

PREDICTION: Arizona 74, Utah 71