Arizona Has Three Too Many for Iowa

Sure, Arizona could sprint dizzily, but when the Wildcats made three-point baskets galore Sunday, they left Iowa dazed.

Arizona knocked down seven three-point shots in the first 14 1/2 minutes, ruled the boards, and ran Iowa silly to start off an 87-73 victory and gain a berth in the NCAA West Regional semifinals in Denver.

Six of the third-seeded Wildcats scored in double figures, led by Ben Davis’ 17 points.

Reggie Geary, who scored 16 points, made three of his first four three-point shots to lead the Wildcats to a 40-24 advantage before No. 21 Iowa closed to 48-37 at halftime.

“They wanted to sit in a zone and see if we could make them,” Geary said. “That’s fine with us. They saw what happened.”

Arizona Coach Lute Olson looked at the stat sheet, saw Geary’s 13 assists and only one turnover in nearly 38 minutes, and said to him with mock surprise: “I didn’t know you could do that.”

Iowa knew about Arizona’s speed, but couldn’t find a way to cope.

“We saw it on tape, but it’s a lot different seeing it live,” Iowa guard Andre Woolridge said. “They came out flying and really stuck the shots. They got them from a lot of different people. It seemed that we were always a step slow. I don’t know what went wrong.”

Arizona (26-6) didn’t have to rely on long-range shooting in the second half as it kept pushing the ball up court quickly, outrunning the slower and smaller Hawkeyes, and beating them inside to go back up, 56-41, with 15 minutes to go. Arizona had only one three-point basket in the second half.

Iowa, which trailed George Washington by 17 late in the second half Friday, couldn’t pull off another miracle. The Hawkeyes closed it to 57-49 with 11:38 to go before Arizona ran away again with eight successive points as the Wildcats capitalized on several turnovers.

“They were very sharp,” Iowa Coach Tom Davis said. “We were a comeback or two short today.”

Iowa (23-9) fought back once more to 66-59 on Mon’ter Glasper’s three-point shot, his only basket of the game, with 8:38 left, but Joe McLean matched that with a three-point basket for Arizona. A steal and a fastbreak by Geary, followed by his behind-the-back pass for a dunk by Michael Dickerson put Arizona back up by 12.

“We saw how GW got defensive against the press,” Geary said. “We wanted to make sure we kept attacking, and the guys hit the big free throws.”

Chris Kingsbury led Iowa, the region’s sixth-seeded team, with 16 points, and Russ Millard had 14. Jess Settles scored 13, and Woolridge scored 12.

“It seemed like there was a lid on the basket,” said Settles, who missed all three of his three-point shots.

The Wildcats reached their magic 80-point total with 3:32 left. Arizona has not lost this season when it scored 80 points or more, going 16-0 in those games. All six of Arizona’s losses came when the Wildcats scored in the 70-79 range.

Miles Simon, who made only one of seven three-point shots, finished with 15 points for Arizona. McLean and Dickerson scored 13 each, and Corey Williams added 11.

Arizona had a 42-36 rebounding advantage, and outshot Iowa from the floor 48% to 41%.

“We knew it would come to keeping even on the boards and handling their pressure,” Olson said. “Well, we outrebounded, and 12 turnovers against 40 minutes of pressure is pretty good.”