TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — Anthony Dell’Orso scored a season-high 22 points after coming off the bench, Ivan Kharchenkov added 18 and No. 4 Arizona bounced back from its first two losses of the season by beating No. 23 BYU 75-68 on Wednesday night.
Arizona (24-2, 11-2 Big 12) started the season with 23 consecutive wins, spending nine straight weeks as the nation’s No. 1 team before losing back-to-back games to No. 9 Kansas and No. 16 Texas Tech.
Dell’Orso — a 6-foot-6 Australian — helped the Wildcats get back in the win column after shooting 8 of 15 from the field, including 4 of 8 on 3-pointers.
BYU (19-7, 7-6) was led by freshman star AJ Dybantsa, who finished with 35 points on 13-of-28 shooting. The 6-foot-9 forward topped 30 points for the sixth time this season.
The Cougars were playing their first game without starting guard Richie Saunders, who tore his ACL in a 90-86 overtime victory against Colorado on Saturday. He’s out for the rest of the season.
Arizona never trailed in the second half and slowly pulled away, taking a 66-50 lead on Dell’Orso’s 3-pointer with 6:40 left. BYU cut the deficit 73-68 with 1:05 remaining but couldn’t get any closer.
Dell’Orso made a corner 3 at the halftime buzzer to give Arizona a 42-35 advantage.
Arizona played without starting forward Koa Peat and backup guard Dwayne Aristode. The school said Peat will also miss Saturday’s game against No. 2 Houston because of a muscle strain in his lower leg area. He’ll be re-evaluated next week.
Aristode missed his second straight game with an illness.
Up next
BYU hosts No. 6 Iowa State on Saturday.
Arizona plays at No. 2 Houston on Saturday.
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This story corrects Dybantsa’s point total.
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