No. 3 Arizona uses a 20-point run to seal a 101-56 rout of UT-Arlington for its 5th straight win

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) – Kylan Boswell scored 13 of his 15 points in the second half and No. 3 Arizona scored 20 straight points late in the first half and early in the second in a 101-56 rout of UT-Arlington on Sunday.

The Wildcats (5-0) had seven players score in double figures and five had 10 or more points in every game this season and averaged 99.6 points.

Boswell, the reigning Pac-12 Player of the Week, shot 6 of 10 from the field and 5 of 6 in the second half, including three three-pointers. Oumar Ballo added 15 points on 7-of-8 shooting, while Caleb Love had 10 points, six rebounds and six assists. Arizona shot 52.1% overall and 57.9% in the second half.

“I’m telling you, we have eight starters,” Ballo said.

Shemar Wilson led UTA (2-2) with 19 points on 8-of-12 shooting, and no teammates had more than three field goals.

Arizona finished the first half on a 15-5 run, including the final six points, and then scored the first 14 points of the second half to take a 57-37 lead with 15:40 left. Another 13-0 run made it 70-39 with 11:11 left.

“We have a standard that probably wasn’t met in the first half,” Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said. “I was kind of happy with how we responded in the first half, because it wasn’t easy, but you don’t start games up 30-0.”

The Mavericks made six of their first nine 3-pointers and were shooting better than 50% overall late in the first half before missing 16 of their first 17 shots, including 11 in a row from outside. They shot 36.1% for the game.

UTA built a 5-point lead midway through the first half and was up 32-28 with 4:27 left when Arizona went on a 9-0 run over 82 seconds to take a five-point lead. The Mavericks tied the score at 37 on a 3-pointer from Wilson with 1:26 left, but didn’t score again until the 14:52 mark of the second half.

“I felt like we really competed and shared the ball and stuck to the game plan for about 18 minutes in the first half,” UTA coach KT Turner said. “Then I felt the guys kind of went off script and started taking bad shots. They’re too good a team to be taking bad shots against.”

The Mavericks had to rethink their team after the NCAA declared junior guard Phillip Russell ineligible. The 5-foot-10 Russell was not immediately granted waivers to play as a two-time transfer, having started his career at Saint Louis in 2020-21 and then spent two seasons at Southeast Missouri State.

UT-Arlington: Hosts Alcorn State on Wednesday.

Arizona: Faces No. 18 Michigan State in Palm Springs, Calif., Thursday.

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