The high-low action from Azuolas Tubelis down in to Christian Koloko in the paint — or vice versa — was a staple of Arizona’s offense last season. The guy receiving the pass is either walling his defender off for an easy bucket at the rim, or setting up another pass. It was effective in a number of ways for a 33-win Wildcat group last season.

And even though one half of that partnership is off to the NBA, it looks like the staple will be sticking around. Tubelis hit Oumar Ballo on occasion in Monday night’s 117-75 win over Nicholls to open Year 2 under Lloyd.

Tubelis was the star of the night, finishing with 23 points and seven boards on 10-of-12 shooting.

Ballo, stepping into a starting role for Koloko, had 18 points and nine boards. Ballo shot 8-for-11 from the charity stripe and 5-of-6 from the field.

The frontcourt duo combined for two blocks and three steals. They were as efficient with their shots as possible.

They made the right play constantly, even if the bucket wasn’t theirs to score. Tubelis finished with six assists, one off Kerr Kriisa’s game-high seven. Ballo finished with a career-high four assists.

“It makes you efficient because a lot of times you’re giving the ball to your bigs, they have like a one-man advantage or half-a-man advantage. If you have your big guys that can connect the dots on some of those plays, you can do a lot of fun things,” Lloyd said after the game. “And they also play really well together. That’s something we take pride in and we work on every day.

“I’m just really proud of both, they both have really come so far and just, not only scoring around the basket, but they feel a little more comfortable making decisions with the ball. Especially Oumar, you see how much more confident he looks with the ball in his hands.”

As a team, the Wildcats finished with 30 assists on 38 made shots. This was a program that led the country in assists last season, and with Kriisa back in the fold and another ball-handler in Courtney Ramey set to join the rotation soon, the UA could once again be among college basketball’s passing elites.

That’s the plan.

“I love assists,” Lloyd said. “I think assists create easy baskets. It’s not something we talk about on a day-to-day basis, but I think our guys for the most part believe in playing team basketball and sharing. I think they really enjoy making that extra pass and getting an open shot.”

Next up for Arizona: Southern. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m. PT on Friday.