Arizona's Oumar Ballo posts line in Maui Invitational only matched by Zion Williamson in last 25 years
Oumar Ballo was completely unstoppable in Arizona’s title run at the Maui Jim Maui Invitational.
The fourth-year junior scored 30 points and grabbed 13 rebounds in the Wildcats’ title-clinching win over Creighton on Wednesday night, the perfect capper to a three-wins-in-three-days stretch that saw Ballo put up 21 a game and grab 10.7 boards. He made 27 of his 34 shots.
According to OptaSTATS, Duke’s Zion Williamson is the only other Division I player to have a comparable three-day run in the last 25 years.
Oumar Ballo for @ArizonaMBB in the Maui Invitational:
21.0 PPG
10.7 RPG
79.4 FG%In the past 25 years, the only other Division I player to play 3 games in 3 days and average 20.0 and 10.0 on 75.0% shooting over that span was Duke's Zion Williamson in the 2019 ACC Tournament.
— OptaSTATS (@OptaSTATS) November 24, 2022
Ballo scored 10 of the Wildcats’ final 12 points on Wednesday to outlast the 10th-ranked Creighton Bluejays.
So far this season, the Wildcats are getting nearly 40 a game from their two bigs — 19.3 for Azuolas Tubelis and 19 for Ballo. With Ballo taking over for last year’s Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year and Most Improved (Christian Koloko), the Wildcats were hoping for another breakthrough kind of campaign from the 5 spot.
“If you watch the game, he brings everything,” guard Kerr Kriisa said of Ballo after the Creighton win. “He rebounds, he scores. He had 14-17. That’s outstanding. Oumar’s been putting a lot of work in during the summer trying to get his body better, his fat down, which he has done.”
Arizona is 6-0 on the year. The Wildcats return to the court on Dec. 1 to face Utah to open Pac-12 play.