Kerr Kriisa put up a 14-point, 12-assist, 11-rebound triple-double Friday night to help lead No. 17 Arizona (2-0) to a 95-78 win over Southern.

The junior point guard recorded his second career triple-double in the win, joining Andre Iguodala and Loren Woods as the only three players in program history to triple-double multiple times in a career. It was also the 11th triple-double in program history, and Kriisa’s 12 assists were the most by an Arizona player since 2006.

A year after leading the country in assists, it looks as though coach Tommy Lloyd has another group that’s going to put a premium on sharing the ball, moving the court, and creating. The UA had 24 assists on 30 made baskets; the Wildcats are assisting on 80% of their buckets through two games.

Four days after setting a program record for shooting percentage (71.7%), Arizona shot 54.5% from the field. Oumar Ballo, Pelle Larsson, and Azuolas Tubelis each scored 17 points. Adama Bal added nine points and five boards off the bench.

“Southern, man, they battled,” Lloyd said after the game. “And I knew it was gonna be like that. I thought for a stretch of the game we played really well and I thought for other stretches we didn’t. That’s what happens in the early season. I take my hat off to Southern, I mean they played their tails off and they’re relentless.”

Arizona went into the halftime break up 49-31 and then opened up as large as a 31-point lead over the first 10 minutes of the second half. Southern used the press to try and speed up some of the Wildcats’ younger players and late in the game ripped off a 15-1 run to cut the margin in half — down from 29 to 15.

“It’s kind of an eye-opener for some of our guys, especially some of our young guys,” Lloyd said. “They need to understand, these games you don’t take for granted. You’re not in high school anymore. You’re not playing AAU basketball. You’re playing all Division I players who are good players and hungry and have pride. So, I obviously I was disappointed with how our younger group finished.

“There’s going to be some great lessons learned from that. We have standards in this program, in effort, intelligence, and they didn’t meet them. It’s that easy.”

Lessons learned are always a little easier in the face of a win, though. The Wildcats will look to clean things up in the turnover department — they have 43 in two games — when they take the court next against Utah Tech (Thursday, 6 p.m. PT).