TUCSON, Ariz. – The Arizona Wildcats will play their final non-conference game on Thursday night versus UConn in McKale Center. The match-up will the UA's third game in five days prior to a week break before starting Pac-12 play.
   
No. 18/19 Arizona vs. UConn
Thursday, Dec. 21 at 7:00 p.m. (MST)
TV: ESPN2 (Dave Pasch & Bill Walton)
Radio: Arizona IMG Radio Network (Brian Jeffries & Ryan Hansen)
Twitter: @APlayersProgram
#BearDown
 
Arizona will face UConn in its final non-conference game of the season. The Wildcats will look to extend their program record of 46 consecutive non-conference home wins against the Huskies. UA has won 76 of their last 78 home games overall going back to the 2012-13 season. The program is 129-13 (.908) inside McKale Center under head coach Sean Miller.

UA dispatched North Dakota State on Monday night with a 30-point victory. It was Arizona's best defensive game of the season, holding the Bison to just 53 points. The defensive effort was spearheaded by allowing just three NDSU points during an 11-minute stretch that covered the end of the first half and the beginning of the second half. Deandre Ayton scored 25 points and grabbed nine rebounds in just 26 minutes of action in the victory over the Bison. The 7-foot-1-inch freshman has now led the Wildcats in rebounding in every game this season.

The Wildcats have never defeated UConn in their five head-to-head meetings. Three of those five defeats have been by two points with an average margin of defeat of just five points per game for the entire series.

Freshman Deandre Ayton is one of just four players in the nation to average at least 20 points and 10 rebounds per game while shooting 60 percent or greater from the field. Ayton is joined by Duke's Marvin Bagley III, Georgetown's Jessie Govan and UNLV's Brandon McCoy as the only players in that distinction.

Head coach Sean Miller and company head into Thursday's non-conference finale looking to finish the month of December with a perfect 6-0 record. Arizona is 52-10 (.839) in the month of December under Miller with a non-conference record of 97-20 (.829) under Miller's tutelage as well.

Point guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright opened the first five games of his senior season with 27 assists and 11 turnovers, good for a 2.5 assist-to-turnover ratio. In the seven games since, PJC has tallied 31 assists to just six turnovers for a 5.2 assist-to-turnover ratio.

Arizona has won six of its last seven non-conference finales and enters the final game prior to Pac-12 play with a record of 66-4 (.943) inside McKale Center in non-conference play under head coach Sean Miller.