Game recap: No. 7 Wildcats 77, Huskies 66

Takeaway

After building a nine-point lead against No. 7 Arizona in the first half, the Washington Huskies were unable to hold off the Pac-12 Conference-leading Wildcats in a 77-66 loss at the McKale Center in Tucson, AZ Sunday (box). The loss was UW’s seventh in the past nine games, yet was winnable if star guard Markelle Fultz had even an average game for him.

Essential moments

Leading 26-17 with 5:06 to play in the first half, the Huskies surrendered a 14-5 run over the next four and a half minutes, capped off by an Allonzo Trier three-pointer to tie at 31 with :31 to play in the half. The three from Trier, who played his third game since clearing a NCAA suspension for testing positive for performance enhancing drugs, was Arizona’s first after eight failures.

Washington built a six-point lead early in the second half off a Fultz jumper, but then went cold. Arizona responded with a 12-5 run over the next four minutes to take the lead for good on Kadeem Allen’s layin for a 40-39 lead with 16:57 left. The Huskies went two-of-nine over that span.

Huskies (9-12, 2-7 Pac-12)

All Washington starters reached double-digit scoring. Freshman forward Sam Timmins scored a career-high 11 points with six rebounds. Fultz, facing some double- and even triple-teams, had a game-high 16 points, but was 8-of-23 from the floor and 0-for-4 from the line as well as  beyond the arc. David Crisp had 14 points, and Matisse Thybulle and Noah Dickerson each had 10, the latter fouling out with seven minutes left.

Three substitutes (Dominic Green, Carlos Johnson and Matthew Atewe) combined for five points.

Words

“Unless you’re more talented than Arizona, error-free basketball needs to take place. We did a good job in the first half, but we made our mistakes in the second. We weren’t able to sustain it.” – UW coach Lorenzo Romar

“All of a sudden, to me, we’re a little bit ahead of ourselves. A lot of people are saying great things (but) watching our effort level, our consistency, our togetherness, we weren’t near this week where we were coming in.” — UA coach Sean Miller

‘It’s great to play in an atmosphere like this. I wish all our games were like that. It gets me fired up.” — Fultz, who chose the Huskies over Arizona and Kentucky

Noteworthy

Miller recorded his 100th victory in conference play . . . Arizona has won 63 home games in a row . . .The Huskies have not beaten a top-10 team on the road since 1974.

Next

The Huskies return to Hec Ed to face USC (18-4, 5-4 Pac-12) at 8 p.m. Wednesday (ESPNU).