Arizona State Arizona St./Arizona Arizona Men's College Basketball recap on ESPN

TUCSON, Arizona (Ticker) -- Gilbert Arenas scored 23 points and backcourt mate Jason Gardner added 22 as 13th-ranked Arizona rolled to its 11th straight victory over Arizona State, 86-75 in a Pac-10 Conference showdown.

Loren Woods contributed 10 points for the Wildcats (13-5, 6-1 Pac-10), who have won five in a row overall.

"I think our guys were really fired up for the two home games last week and you go in peaks and valleys," Arizona coach Lute Olson said. "And I could tell all week they just weren't that fired up about this one. I was worried about that tonight."

Arizona trailed early, 11-8, before Gardner's second 3-pointer started a 7-0 run that gave the Wildcats a 15-11 lead with 12 1/2 minutes remaining in the first half. The advantage was down to two before Arizona scored the last eight points of the half for a 42-32 lead.

Arenas scored 14 points in the opening 20 minutes.

Arizona State got within 50-44 with 16:08 to play as Knight scored four in a six-point Sun Devils' streak. But the Wildcats answered with 13 of the next 19 points to blow it open, 63-50, midway through the second half. Arizona State did not get within single digits again.

"Today, it was just falling," said Gardner, who made 6-of-8 shots -- all 3-pointers. "Keep shooting, keep shooting, that's the way you have to do it. I was open because we kept making the extra pass. Gilbert was open and he was making them, too. We knew they were going to come out with a lot of hard fouls."

Chad Prewitt poured in 18 points and Tommy Smith and Alton Mason added 13 apiece for the Sun Devils (8-10, 0-7).

"The fouls hurt us. We couldn't play aggressive basketball," Smith said. "We couldn't attack offensively and we need to slide more on defense instead of playing with our hands. It made us play soft basketball."

Arizona State committed 31 fouls, sending the Wildcats to the line 44 times. The Sun Devils attempted only 12 free throws.

"We had to sub to stay out of foul trouble and we started to commit silly turnovers. That is a sign of fatigue and it really swung the momentum in their favor," said Arizona State coach Rob Evans.

"They play very aggressively and so they give up a lot of free-throw opportunities and we draw a lot of fouls with the things we run," Olson added.

Arizona improved to 9-0 when scoring at least 80 points. The Wildcats have held opponents to 62 points a game during their winning streak.

Wildcats center Loren Woods was held to 10 points and scuffled with Prewitt with just under six minutes left in the first half.

"It was very physical out there," Woods said. "They were making some cheap fouls, but we didn't back down. We expected them to play physical, so it didn't surprise us."

Donnell Knight added 12 points, five assists and four rebounds for the Sun Devils, who shot 46 percent (31-of-67).

Arizona's bench was outscored, 27-13, but the Wildcats hit 10-of-22 3-pointers to help overcome 39 percent shooting (22-of-56).

ALSO SEE
Men's College Basketball Scoreboard

Arizona State Clubhouse

Arizona Clubhouse