Tucson, Arizona — Anthony Dell’Orso Scored a season-high 22 points after coming off the bench. Ivan Kharchenkov 18 and number 4 added Arizona Bounced back from their first two losses of the season to beat No. 23. BYU 75-68 Wednesday night.
Arizona (24–2, 11–2 Big 12) opened with 23 consecutive wins and spent nine consecutive weeks as the nation’s No. 1 team before losing consecutive games to No. 9. kansas and number 16 texas tech.
Dell’Orso, a 6-foot-6 Australian, helped get the Wildcats back into the win column by making 8 of 15 shots from the field, including 4 of 8 on 3-pointers.
Arizona played without a starting forward koa peat and backup guard Dwayne Aristode.
The school said Pete also will not play in Saturday’s game at No. 2 houston Due to strain in the muscles of the lower leg. He will be reevaluated next week.
Aristide missed his second consecutive game due to illness.
“Great win for our guys,” Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said. “We knew it was going to be tough. Obviously, we’re going through injuries right now. It’s that point in the season where sometimes you have to struggle a little bit, and if you don’t accept it, you’re not ready for it. So, our guys have done a good job of adapting to it.”
BYU (19-7, 7-6) led by freshman star AJ DiBantsaJoe finished with 35 points on 13-of-28 shooting. The 6-foot-9 tall forward topped the scoring with 30 points for the sixth time this season.
The Cougars were playing their first game without a starting guard. richie saundersWho Suffered a season-ending torn ACL Saturday in a 90-86 overtime win at home against Colorado.
Arizona never trailed in the second half and gradually took a 66–50 lead on Dell’Orso’s 3-pointer with 6:40 left. BYU cut the deficit to 73–68 with 1:05 remaining, but could get no closer.
“I knew every second of the game wasn’t going to be aesthetically pleasing,” Lloyd said. “But you know, to be able to control the game in that second half — I wish we were able to finish it a little better, but if you watch college basketball, that seems to be a theme.
“And to face a guy like AJ, who had an easy 35 points, and come out on top was a great effort by our guys.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
