No. 3/3 Arizona Survives Scare, Outlasts Gardner-Webb 91-65 With Second Half Surge
December 02, 2014 | Men's Basketball
TUCSON, Ariz. --- The No. 3/3 Arizona Wildcats survived a first-half scare and came out firing in the second half against Gardner-Webb Tuesday night, putting together a 30-4 run and knocking down over 60 percent of their attempts from the floor in the final 20 minutes en route to a 91-65 victory in the McKale Center.
Arizona (7-0) shot 56.2 percent from the floor on the night, including a blistering 64.5 percent (20-of-31) in the second half while holding Gardner-Webb (3-4) to a field goal percentage of 37.9 percent for the game. The Wildcats won the battle on the glass by a 43-27 margin, including a 12-6 advantage on the offensive boards, and outscored the Runnin' Bulldogs 44-14 in the paint.
The Runnin' Bulldogs led for nearly the balance of the first half, leading by as many as four and holding an advantage for just under 10 minutes in the game. Gardner-Webb shot well in the second half, knocking down 44.4 percent of its attempts from the floor.
Tyler Strange (Leominster, Mass.) and Tyrell Nelson (Charlotte, N.C.) led the way for Gardner-Webb with 15 points each, as Strange knocked down 5-of-6 from downtown and dished out six assists. Jerome Hill (Adel, Ga.) added 13 points, six boards and a career-high six assists, moving within eight points of a tie for ninth on the program's Division I scoring list.
Nelson pulled down a game-high eight rebounds for the Runnin' Bulldogs as Harold McBride (Bronx, N.Y.) poured in 10 points with a 4-for-7 night from the floor, including a pair of threes.
Stanley Johnson and Gabe York paced the Wildcats, both dropping a game-high 18 points as Johnson and Brandon Ashley each pulled down eight boards. Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and Kaleb Tarczweski chipped in 11 and 10 points, respectively, as T.J. McConnell (8) and Parker Jackson-Cartwright (7) combined for 15 assists.
Gardner-Webb hung tough for the first six minutes, taking an early 3-2 lead on a Strange trey before back-to-back Nelson jumpers gave the Runnin' Bulldogs a 7-5 advantage with 14:33 left in the first half. The Runnin' Bulldogs kept pushing the tempo, stretching the gap to four at 13-9 after Ivey converted all three shots of a three-shot foul at the 13:09 mark.
After Arizona cut the lead to one at 15-14 on a York trey Gardner-Webb responded with four of the next six points, pushing the margin back to three at 19-16 following back-to-back jumpers by McBride. The junior guard added a trifecta moments later, giving GWU a 22-19 advantage before Arizona answered with a 7-0 run, taking its first lead of the game at 26-22 on a trey by York with 5:49 left in the half.
Gardner-Webb quickly countered with a 6-3 spurt, closing the gap to 29-28 following a Hill bucket at the 3:48 mark. Arizona wasted little time in responding, scoring the final 11 points of the half to take a 40-28 lead into the intermission.
The Runnin' Bulldogs fought back in the early moments of the second half, cutting the advantage to 42-36 with an 8-2 run that was capped by a Nelson lay-in with 18:14 to go. Gardner-Webb kept the momentum going over the next several minutes, closing the gap even further on a three-point play by Hill that cut the lead to 45-44 at the 15:54 mark.
Arizona answered with an 11-4 run, stretching the margin to 56-48 with 12:41 to play following a baseline runner by York off the inbound. The Wildcats continued to push the tempo, extending the run to 30-4 and knocking down 15-of-17 from the floor over a 10-minute stretch to widen the gap to 81-53 with less than five minutes to go.
Gardner-Webb trimmed the lead to 89-65 with 12 of the next 20 points, fighting until the final buzzer as the Wildcats' shooters proved too much for the Runnin' Bulldogs with a torrid 20-of-31 second half (64.5 percent) from the field.
Gardner-Webb is back in action on Friday evening when the Runnin' Bulldogs host NCCAA member Toccoa Falls College at 7:00 pm in Paul Porter Arena.
