(AP) — Jaden Bradley, Trey Townsend and Caleb Love hit 3-pointers within the first two minutes, and No. 4 seed Arizona easily dismissed 13th-seeded Akron 93-65 on Friday night in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Bradley finished with 19 points, Townsend had 16 points on 7-of-8 shooting, Carter Bryant scored 12 and Love and KJ Lewis each had 10 for the Wildcats (23-12), who reached the second round of March Madness for the third time in coach Tommy Lloyd's four seasons.
Arizona shot 12 of 25 from 3-point range and threw down nine dunks. The Wildcats will face either Oregon or Liberty in the East Region on Sunday.
Tavari Johnson and Nate Johnson each scored 13 points for the Zips (28-7).
Akron responded to Arizona's early 9-0 burst with an 11-2 run to tie the game, but the Zips never led as Arizona built a 41-31 lead at halftime and pushed ahead by 17 points early in the second half.
With 9:21 left, Bryant drilled a corner 3 late in the shot clock to make it 71-50.
Size advantage
The Arizona starting lineup had a nearly 3-inch height advantage per player. The Wildcats outrebounded Akron 53-22 and outscored the Zips 48-20 in the paint.
Uncharitable stripe
The referees let the Wildcats and Zips get away with pretty much everything, but when they blew the whistle, Arizona couldn’t take advantage, going into halftime having missed all five free-throw attempts.
The Wildcats, who came into the day ninth nationally in made free throws and 15th in free-throw percentage (78.4%), finished the game at 30% (3-for-10).
