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SALT LAKE CITY — Arizona forward Solomon Hill, the team's leading scorer, came out of the locker room and back onto the court for the second half of play Thursday night in the Wildcats' match-up with the Runnin' Utes at the Huntsman Center, but less than two minutes later the junior was back in the locker room.
Hill landed an elbow to the back of Utah guard Cedric Martin's head, warranting a Flagrant Two foul and an ejection from the game.
The Huntsman Center crowd roared in satisfaction as he made his way off the court just as freshman guard Alex Mortensen sunk the two free throws to bring the Utes within three.
The Utes, however, couldn't capitalize on the momentum.
In fact, it was Arizona that rallied from that point, going on a 20-2 run to blow open what had just been a close game before the altercation. The Wildcats went on to cruise to a 77-51 victory.
Four-straight 3-pointers fueled the Arizona run: back-to-back 3-balls by freshman guard Nick Johnson, followed by two more from junior guard Kevin Parrom.
Senior guard Kyle Fogg led the Wildcats with 12 points on 4-of-7 shooting with six assists. Parrom also scored 12 on 4-of-9 from the field, while grabbing four boards. Johnson scored 11 points while freshman guard Josiah Turner added 10, and senior forward Jesse Perry nabbed a game-high 10 rebounds.
Arizona (13-6, 4-2) shot a hot 50 percent from beyond the arc, hitting 12-of-24, and went 46.6 percent from the floor overall. Fogg, Parrom, and Johnson combined for eight of those 3's, on 12 attempts — over 66 percent.
Junior center Jason Washburn led Utah (4-14, 1-5) with 14 points and six rebounds, and hit half his shots from the field. Junior forward Dijon Farr scored eight points with four rebounds, and a career-high three blocks. Junior guard Chris Hines hit half of his six 3-point attempts for nine points.
Martin went to the locker room after taking Hill's elbow to the back of his head, but returned later and finished the game with seven points on 3-of-6 shooting and five boards.
Freshman point guard Kareem Storey made his second career start, taking over for the recently dismissed Josh Watkins. Storey finished with 10 points on 3-of-6 from the floor, with six assists, but also had five turnovers and fouled out late in the game.
"I thought he was pretty hyped up," Utah head coach Larry Krystkowiak said of Storey's play. "He came in and got some fouls and turnovers, which would be anticipated. I thought he made some silly fouls. He is going to have some fun. He is over it. I thought he had a couple nice moves to the basket. We can't let him get those fouls early. We need him to slow down and let the offense come to him."
The Utes struggled in their first game post-Watkins, who led the team in scoring with a 15.6 average, and had been the only active senior on the roster. He was released from the team Wednesday after a second violation of team rules this season.
"We are going to have to manufacture stuff as a group," Krystkowiak said. "We don't have the terminating point guard that will finish on the pick and roll, so it will have to be done collectively. Our screens will have to improve and guys will have to make plays. For the most part we are moving the ball really well. Now we need to find the ending to it."
It will be tough to make up for Watkins' production, even collectively, as Utah got next to nothing from its bench Thursday night. Three points — coming on 3-of-5 from the free throw line — along with six rebounds and four turnovers was all the bench managed to produce.
The Wildcats led the Utes in virtually every statistic, including rebounding (36-25), assists (17-8), steals (10-5), and blocks (5-4). Utah finished with 16 turnovers to Arizona's nine, giving Utah a 1:2 assist to turnover ratio, while Arizona was one assist short of posting a 2:1 ratio.
I thought he was pretty hyped up. He came in and got some fouls and turnovers, which would be anticipated. I thought he made some silly fouls. He is going to have some fun. He is over it. I thought he had a couple nice moves to the basket. We can't let him get those fouls early. We need him to slow down and let the offense come to him.
–Larry Krystkowiak on Kareem Storey
Arizona took an early 21-11 lead, but Utah hung around, cutting it to 27-26 with under two minutes left in the first half.
But Fogg hit back-to-back shots from downtown to give the Wildcats a 33-28 lead at the half.
The game remained close until Arizona went on the big run shortly after Hill was ejected.
Krystkowiak doesn't believe Arizona's run was a direct result of the ejection.
"I don't think it was related to the altercation at all," he said. "I think it was related to our guys running out of gas. We had been riding those ponies for quite a while and it is like a heavyweight fight, when it gets into the later rounds you can only take so many punches.
"Our bench is a little thin right now. We need to get some guys to come in and have an impact. Initially in that first 35 minutes we were competitive, then the altercation was more of a coincidence than expecting us to all of the sudden come out and go on a run of our own."
Hill wasn't having one of his better nights before getting the boot. He hit just 1-of-7 from the field to finish with five points, four rebounds and one assist.
Arizona head coach Sean Miller was pleased with the way his team responded to losing its leading scorer.
"Solomon wasn't playing well," he said. "It wasn't as if we lost him on a real good night. He wasn't having a good night, but we are clearly a better team with him. In that brief moment when he left, we answered like you'd want a team to answer."
The Utes will look to bounce back from this loss and end a four-game slide at 3 p.m. Saturday when they host Arizona State (6-12, 2-4) at the Huntsman Center.
