Tucson, AZ (SportsNetwork.com) - Freshman Aaron Gordon recorded his second straight double-double to begin his collegiate career and 12 different Wildcats scored to lead sixth-ranked Arizona to a 91-57 drubbing of Long Beach State at McKale Center.
Gordon, coming off a 13 point, 10 rebound game against Cal-Poly in his team's home-opener, finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds against the 49ers, who tried to find their way all night after losing talent from last year's team that made it to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Brandon Ashley scored 16 points and Nick Johnson added 14 points for Arizona (2-0), which had four players score in double-figures.
"The chemistry we have on this team is unrivaled to any team that I've been on," Ashley said.
Dan Jennings paced Long Beach State (1-1) with 16 points and eight rebounds in the loss.
Gordon was one of the nation's highly coveted players coming out of high school, joining Kansas' Andrew Wiggins and Duke's Jabari Parker. He showed why there was so much hype early on in this matchup
Arizona's TJ McConnell gathered his own miss and tossed it to the hoop into the waiting hands of Gordon for an alley-oop slam.
He later made his only 3-point attempt to extend Arizona's lead to 24-9 with 8:08 remaining in the half.
It was just getting started for the Wildcats, who stifled Long Beach State in the opening stanza, allowing 18 points through the first 20 minutes.
With the score 29-13 and over four minutes left on the first half clock, Ashley stole the ball from Branford Jones and lobbed it up to Johnson for a slam. Long Beach State called a timeout to keep the momentum at bay but Rondae Hollis-Jefferson had other ideas.
Out of the timeout, Hollis-Jefferson forced another turnover from Michael Caffey and went in for the uncontested dunk.
Arizona led 44-18 at the break and emptied its bench midway through the second half when the game was well in hand.
"We play these games to see where we are at against one of the best teams in the country and we are just not at that level," Long Beach State coach Dan Monson said.
Gabe York, who started against Cal Poly, came off the bench and scored 14 points with six assists.
Caffey scored six points on 2-of-10 shooting after dumping in 27 points in the opener, a 71-59 win over Hawaii-Pacific on Saturday.
Kris Gulley, who scored 12 points for Long Beach State in a 94-72 loss a year ago against Arizona, only managed three points on 1-of-5 shooting.
Game Notes
Arizona travels to San Diego State on Thursday ... Long Beach State hosts Loyola Marymount on Thursday ... Arizona has now started 2-0 in each of the last four seasons under Sean Miller.
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