The final Pac-12 Player of the Year got an early start on vying for that award in a new league.
Caleb Love had 33 points, seven rebounds, seven assists and no turnovers to lead Arizona to a 90-81 win over TCU on Monday night at McKale Center, starting the Wildcats’ Big 12 Conference era on a high note.
Love was 11 of 17 from the field, 5 of 11 from 3 and made all six free throw attempts. He’s scored 80 points the last three games, most in his career, and along the way surpassed 2,300 career points and moved into the top 200 in Division I history in both points and 3s.
Henri Veesaar had 15 points, six rebounds and four assists in 18 minutes off the bench and Jaden Bradley added 10 points and six assists for Arizona (7-5, 1-0), which won its third in a row for the first time this season. The Wildcats shot 56.9 percent against a TCU defense that came in ranked 17th in the nation, dishing out 28 assists on 33 made field goals.
TCU (7-5, 0-1) shot 46 percent, including 51.9 percent, but never led despite pulling within one score on seven occasions in the second half. The Horned Frogs made the most of Arizona’s seven turnovers, scoring 16 points off them, but the UA only turned it over once in the second half.
Arizona led 41-37 at halftime but less than two minutes in TCU had made it a 1-point game. The Horned Frogs had a chance to tie it with 15:08 left but David Punch couldn’t complete the 3-point play, then the Wildcats went down and scored twice in a row to get back up by two scores.
The Wildcats hit 3s on four straight possessions, the first by Veesaar before back-to-back-to-back long triples from Love, part of a run of eight consecutive made field goals to lead 69-61 with 9:35 to go.
A 4th foul on Veesaar sent him to the bench with 8:15 remaining, bringing Tobe Awaka back in, and his 3-point play put the UA up 76-66 with 6:30 left. TCU started getting to the line, though, with multiple 3-point plays including one when Micah Robinson scored while getting fouled by Carter Bryant but then Vesean Allette was hit with a technical for taunting.
Love made both technical free throws on one end and then Robinson completed his 3-point play.
TCU got within 81-75 on a Robinson 3 with 4:31 left but Bryant drained a well-guarded 3 and then Love dished to Awaka for a dunk to get it back to double digits.
Arizona assisted on nine of its first 10 field goals, including lobs to Bryant and Veesaar from Veesaar and Bradley as well as a fullcourt pass from KJ Lewis to Bryant that Bryant spun in from under the basket while getting shoved.
Bradley’s dish out to Love for an elbow 3 made it 20-8 with 11:22 left in first half, prompting TCU to call time out. The Wildcats scored nine in a row and kept the Horned Frogs without a field goal for almost 3 ½ minutes to built the lead to 14.
TCU went on an 8-0 run to get within 26-23 only to see Arizona run off eight in a row after a UA timeout. The Wildcats extended the margin to 11 before TCU cut it to four twice in the final 90 seconds of the first half.
The UA hits the road for its first Big 12 road games, starting with Saturday’s visit to No. 16 Cincinnati before facing West Virginia on Jan. 7.
