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Arizona cruises by Texas Southern

Mar 20, 2015 - 2:12 AM Portland, OR (SportsNetwork.com) - Rondae Hollis-Jefferson scored a career- high 23 points and added 10 rebounds to lead the Arizona Wildcats to a 93-72 win over Texas Southern in second round action of the NCAA Tournament.

All five Arizona starters finished in double figures, with Pac-12 Freshman of the Year Stanley Johnson scoring 22, Brandon Ashley adding 14, and Kaleb Tarczewski and T.J. McConnell finished with 13 and 12 points, respectively.

The second-seeded Wildcats (32-3) will play Saturday against 10th-seeded Ohio State in the next round in the West Region.

SWAC Player of the Year Madarious Gibbs paced the 15th-seeded Tigers (22-13) with 15 points, and Chris Thomas contributed 13.

"With the size and athleticism that they have, it was kind of hard to compete with them," said Gibbs. "But we went out and fought our hardest and tried to do the best that we could do against the size and their athleticism."

Arizona shot 60.4 percent from the field and made 24-of-27 attempts from the free-throw line, but it also allowed 70-plus points for just the fourth time this season.

"What we talked a lot about during the game and after the game is we came into this tournament as a great defensive team," said Arizona coach Sean Miller. "We were not that today."

To ensure they would not become victims of an upset, the Wildcats hit five of their first six shots from the field to go up 13-2 just over four minutes into the game and force a Texas Southern timeout.

Throughout the first half, Arizona would continue to work down low. It outrebounded the Tigers 18-10 in the first half and scored 30 points in the paint. McConnell's floater at the buzzer put the Wildcats up 54-33 at the break.

In the second half, offense was easier to come by for Texas Southern, but it could not get the necessary stops to sustain a run. The closest the Tigers could get was 18 points before Arizona would widen the gap again.

The Wildcats led by as many as 27 in the second half.

Game Notes

Arizona won its 12th game in a row ... The Wildcats won their tournament- opening game in five straight appearances ... Texas Southern fell to 0-5 in NCAA Tournament play ... This was the first meeting between the schools ... Arizona's bench was outscored 23-9 despite averaging 21.3 points per game ... The Wildcats finished with a 35-19 rebounding edge.