{"id":7253,"date":"2026-01-18T13:20:42","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T08:20:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/paknews.centers.pk\/no-1-arizona-continues-undefeated-start-holds-on-against-ucf\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T13:20:42","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T08:20:42","slug":"no-1-arizona-continues-undefeated-start-holds-on-against-ucf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paknews.centers.pk\/ur\/no-1-arizona-continues-undefeated-start-holds-on-against-ucf\/","title":{"rendered":"No. 1 Arizona continues undefeated start, holds on against UCF"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<section id=\"0\" class=\"w-full\">\n<div class=\"xl:container mx-0 !px-4 py-0 pb-4 !mx-0 !px-0\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.deadspin.com\/tr:w-900\/28010194.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.deadspin.com\/tr:w-900\/28010194.jpg\" alt=\"NCAA Basketball: Arizona State at Arizona\" class=\"w-full\" fetchpriority=\"high\" loading=\"eager\"\/><span class=\"text-0.8 leading-tight\">Jan 14, 2026; Tucson, Arizona, USA; Arizona Wildcats head coach Tommy Lloyd talks with the referee during the first half of the game against the Arizona State Sun Devils at McKale Memorial Center. Mandatory Credit: Aryanna Frank-Imagn Images<!-- --> <!-- --> <\/span><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-1\">\n<p>Corrects typo in headline; clarifies highest-ranked opponent for UCF win in graf 6; adds graf 8 clarifying the undefeated teams to lose this week<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-2\">\n<p>Jaden Bradley scored 23 points and sank five free throws in the final 29 seconds, and top-ranked Arizona avoided the recent trend of undefeated teams getting upset with an 84-77 victory over UCF on Saturday afternoon in Orlando, Fla.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-3\">\n<p>Bradley made 11 of 13 from the line and added six rebounds, five assists and two steals for the Wildcats (18-0, 5-0 Big 12).<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-4\">\n<p>Brayden Burries notched 18 points and Motiejus Krivas posted a double-double with 17 points and 12 rebounds. Ivan Kharchenkov had 10 points while Tobe Awaka totaled 10 points and nine rebounds off the bench before fouling out.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-5\">\n<p>Leading scorer Koa Peat played with foul trouble, was held scoreless in the first half and finished with a career-low four points in 20 minutes.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-6\">\n<p>The victory continued the second-best start by Arizona in program history since it opened the 2013-14 campaign with a 21-0 record.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-7\">\n<p>Point guard Themus Fulks had a career-high 30 points but fouled out for the Knights (14-3, 3-2), who were attempting to beat a No. 1-ranked team for the first time in history. The highest-ranked team UCF has beaten was No. 3 Kansas two years ago.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<p><\/p>\n<section id=\"section-8\">\n<p>Jordan Burks netted 16 points, and Riley Kugel put in 12.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-9\">\n<p>Second-ranked Iowa State suffered its first loss of the season on Tuesday, falling at Kansas. The next day, No. 10 Vanderbilt took its first loss, falling at Texas. Both teams also lost on Saturday.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-10\">\n<p>In the matchup&#8217;s first four minutes, UCF led after John Bol&#8217;s slam and Kugel&#8217;s three-pointer, but Burries, Awaka and Krivas combined for 20 points in the first 10:07 as the Wildcats began to assert themselves and led 26-11 after a 19-2 run.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-11\">\n<p>At the 4:02 mark, Fulks canned a 15-footer to bring it to 35-31, and his deep ball inside the final minute brought UCF to within two. But Awaka&#8217;s free throw in the final seconds left the visitors with a 41-38 halftime lead.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-12\">\n<p>Krivas (15 points), Burries (11) and Awaka (nine) accounted for 35 of Arizona&#8217;s 41 points in the half, while Fulks carried UCF by tallying 18 points.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-13\">\n<p>With Peat still not on the scoresheet, Arizona led 49-45 five minutes into the second half as Kharchenkov and Bradley helped out the offense by netting four points apiece.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-14\">\n<p>The visitors grew the lead to 59-49 on Dwayne Aristode&#8217;s layup at 10:50 and led comfortably the next 10 minutes.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-15\">\n<p>UCF trimmed it to 79-73 in the final minute, but Bradley made 5 of 6 from the stripe to prevent the Knights from achieving an historic victory.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<p><\/p>\n<section id=\"section-16\">\n<p>&#8211;Field Level Media<\/p>\n<\/section><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/deadspin.com\/no-1-arizona-continues-undefeated-start-holds-on-against-ucf\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jan 14, 2026; Tucson, Arizona, USA; Arizona Wildcats head coach Tommy Lloyd talks with the referee during the first half of the game against the Arizona State Sun Devils at McKale Memorial Center. Mandatory Credit: Aryanna Frank-Imagn Images Corrects typo in headline; clarifies highest-ranked opponent for UCF win in graf 6; adds graf 8 clarifying [&hellip;]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7254,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paknews.centers.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paknews.centers.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paknews.centers.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paknews.centers.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paknews.centers.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/paknews.centers.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paknews.centers.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paknews.centers.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paknews.centers.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paknews.centers.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}