LOS ANGELES – Arizona will spend Saturday on the road in Southern California for a neutral site meeting with eighth-ranked Gonzaga at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles. Saturday will be the continuation of the ongoing series between the Wildcats and Zags with both programs in the field of 2018 Maui Jim Maui Invitational.

No. 16/15 Arizona vs. No. 8/8 Gonzaga
Saturday, December 3 at 3:30 p.m. (MST)
TV: ESPN (Dave Flemming & Jay Bilas)
Radio: Arizona IMG Radio Network (Brian Jeffries & Ryan Hansen)
Stats: www.statbroadcast.com
Twitter: @APlayersProgram
#BearDown
 

• Saturday's game will be a meeting of two of the winningest teams in the nation over the last three seasons. Since the start of the 2013-14 season, Gonzaga has won 99 games and Arizona has tallied 98 victories. The two programs trail only Villanova (104 wins) and Kentucky (101 wins) as the winningest programs over three and a half seasons.
• Arizona and Gonzaga will meet for the fourth consecutive season and the seventh time since 2000. It will also be the third-straight meeting between the two with both programs ranked in the top 20 in the Associated Press poll.
• The Wildcats enter Saturday's game following a win versus Texas Southern, 85-63, in McKale Center on Wednesday evening. UA's offense posted an impressive field goal percentage of 63.2 percent for the game, which was a new season high by 14.1 percent. The season high was propelled by the Wildcats shooting 72.7 percent from the field in the second half.
• UA is led in scoring by the freshmen trio of Lauri Markkanen (18.3 ppg), Kobi Simmons (13.0 ppg) and Rawle Alkins (10.9 ppg). Those three freshmen make Arizona one of only two programs in the nation to have its top three scorers all be freshmen averaging at least ten points per game. The other school in this distinction is Auburn.
• The Wildcats have won six of the seven meetings versus the Zags with five of those games being decided by five points or fewer. The last two games in the series have been neck-and-neck battles. Arizona won 66-63 in overtime in Tucson on Dec. 6, 2014 before downing Gonzaga 68-63 in Spokane last December. UA's five-point win in The Kennel last season came after erasing a ten-point halftime deficit.
• UA has been ranked in the AP Top 25 in six of its seven all-time meetings against Gonzaga. Those rankings include four top-five rankings with an average ranking of 14^th in the nation.
• Entering the weekend, Lauri Markkanen is the only player in the Pac-12 to rank in the top 15 of the conference in scoring (18.3 ppg – 4^th), field goal percentage (.541 – 13^th), three-point field goal percentage (.469 – 6^th) and free throw percentage (.892 – 4^th).