Washington is a team on a hot streak at home in the Pac-12 while No. 4 Arizona has won its last two conference road games convincingly.
The Huskies (13-9, 8-4 Pac-12) host the Wildcats (21-2, 11-1) in Seattle on Saturday in a game pitting two of the conference’s top five teams.
Arizona, coming off consecutive wins at Arizona State (91-79) and Washington State (72-60), sits atop the conference standings.
Washington, in fifth place, has strung together five straight home wins in conference play, with its last victory an 87-64 rout of Arizona State on Thursday.
“It’s just comfort,” Washington coach Mike Hopkins said. “Our defense at home has been at a high, high level. And you can feel it. You can see it.”
Former Arizona guard Terrell Brown Jr., a graduate transfer in his fifth year, had 19 points and eight assists with only one turnover in 35 minutes against the Sun Devils.
Brown, who leads the Pac-12 in scoring at 21.8 points a game, had 28 points, eight rebounds, six assists and five steals when Washington lost at Arizona 95-79 on Jan. 3.
“He made big play after big play,” Hopkins said of Brown’s performance at Arizona. “He competes. He is a great leader not only on the court but in the locker room and in timeouts. He’s got a competitive genius, pretty high level.”
The Wildcats extended their winning streak to five games with the win over Washington State on Thursday. Bennedict Mathurin scored 12 of his 20 points during a second-half run that enabled Arizona extend a four-point lead to more than 20 against the Cougars.
“We knew before the game that they were a pretty good defensive team, so our focus was to play fundamentals,” Mathurin said. “Make the simple play and just play together. Make simple passes.”
Arizona made 55.2 percent of its shots when it pulled away in the second half.
When the Wildcats defeated Washington in Tucson, they shot 55 percent against the Huskies’ 2-3 zone defense. They were 12 of 25 (48 percent) from 3-point range, with Kerr Kriisa making 6 of 9 from beyond the arc.
Mathurin had 27 points and Christian Koloko tallied 22 points, 10 rebounds and four blocked shots in that game.
Washington transfers Emmitt Matthews Jr. (West Virginia) and PJ Fuller (TCU) had 16 and 11 points, respectively, in that first meeting.
With Daejon Davis out indefinitely with a right shoulder injury, Matthews and Fuller are playing more minutes. They each shot 5 of 9 from the field and combined for 31 points against Arizona State.
The trip to Washington this week is special for Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd, who was an assistant coach at Gonzaga at Spokane, Wash., for two decades before his hire with the Wildcats after last season.
Arizona stayed in Spokane ahead of its game at Washington State.
“It was good. It was nice. We had a good time,” Lloyd said. “It was really the first time I’d been back. So it was great to see a bunch of friends and we met up with a bunch of people and had a really good night.”
–Field Level Media
