The motto for seventh-ranked Arizona is simple these days: Play hard.
The Wildcats took it to heart for the second consecutive game and earned a 86-59 win over host Washington State that looked like an easy Sunday stroll.
"If you focus on that," Arizona coach Sean Miller said of the motto, "all the other things will fall in place."
Such was the case when three Arizona players made 17 the number of the game. Kaleb Tarczewski, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and Brandon Ashley each finished with 17 points in leading Arizona offensively. It was arguably each of the three's best game of the season in moving Arizona to 22-3 overall and assuring the Wildcats a first-place tie in the Pac-12 Conference. Arizona is 10-2 in the conference before it faces the Southern California schools next week.
It was the eighth consecutive time Arizona beat the Cougars and the fourth consecutive time the Wildcats swept both schools on a weekend series.
This weekend may be when Arizona looks back at where it found its refocus after losing to Arizona State on Feb. 7. For the second consecutive game, Arizona jumped out to an early lead and made it look effortless. It resulted in its first back-to-back 80-point outputs of the conference season.
Miller credited his players for working hard on the trip and during the week of practice getting ready.
"I thought we handled both games like you'd want a good team to," Miller said during his postgame radio show. "(I'm) proud of our efforts."
Miller singled out the trio -- Ashley, Tarczewski and Hollis-Jefferson -- as the keys on Sunday.
"Brandon Ashley and Kaleb Tarczewski set the tone," Miller said. "Kaleb was six for six from the field and that was great to see. He made some great catches. We obviously went to him. And T.J. (McConnell) had eight assists)."
Miller lauded the aggressiveness of Ashley, who went 8 for 17 from the floor. Ashley added eight rebounds in what Miller said "was one of his best performances of the year. And I have to say the same thing about Rondae."
For the third consecutive game, Hollis-Jefferson added a strong offensive game to his already superb defensive effort. In the last three games Hollis-Jefferson had 14 points, 17 points and 17 again against the Cougars. His most impressive basket -- a big-time slam over a Washington State defender -- in what was already a blowout came with 10:02 to make it 76-41.
"Rondae was 8 for 9 (shooting) and he had 10 rebounds," Miller said, "so I'd better put him in there (for players of the game). But it was those three guys that set the tone."
Arizona's staple also returned in that its defense held Washington State to 26.7 percent shooting in the first half. Arizona had a 53-19 lead, scoring the second most points in a first half since 2010.
"Our defense was outstanding in the first half," Miller said. "When you have that type of lead it's not that quite as good in the second (half)."
It wasn't but by then it really didn't matter. Arizona was well on its way to sweeping the weekend in resounding fashion in what could be considered its best basketball of the season in back-to-back performances.
"We leave here feeling good about our weekend's performance," said Miller, adding that the trip in itself is a tough trip because of the distance from Arizona.
"What we brought to the state of Washington was a team that was together and a team that was hard-playing," Miller said.
Tarczewski may have benefitted most from the weekend. He entered it under public scrutiny -- as well as Miller's in as much as Miller said his junior 7-footer wasn't meeting expectations recently.
But Tarczewski had one of his better games against the Cougars. He cleared space for Arizona near the basket and played aggressively offensively.
"The coaches that play against us really admire and respect Kaleb," Miller said. "Sometimes as a fan you don't know the game nearly as well. You think you do (and) you focus more on offense or points per game. But you don't understand the amount of plays the center is involved in that affect winning -- off the ball on offense, rebounding and team defense. Kaleb grades out at an A or A-plus in those areas all the time.
"Statistically it doesn't always show up who he is. But when you take him off the floor you feel the difference. He was fantastic. And it was good for him to get six made field goals because he had lost his confidence over the last couple of weeks. But he got it back on this trip. We need him to score in and around the basket. We know he's capable."
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