Tommy Lloyd and the Arizona Wildcats were back on the court inside McKale Center on Monday night. The offseason is over. The wait to see this new iteration of Arizona in Year 3 under Lloyd is over. And if a 122-59 season-opening victory was any indication, the wait was worth it.

The Wildcats dominated early, using runs of 15-2 and 18-3 to build a 35-point halftime lead over Morgan State. The 61-26 edge at intermission was the program’s largest first-half lead in a game since 1998. Arizona scored another 61 points in the second half to keep its foot on the gas and go wire-to-wire.

“I’m more focused on the effort and energy,” Lloyd said after the game. “I thought, for the most part, we hit that standard today. That’s something we really want to establish. As our guys know, it’s the first chapter in a long book. You don’t get awards for how you play in your first game. I think we have a mature group that understands that.”

Kylan Boswell led all scorers with 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting and 4-of-6 from beyond the arc. Seven other Wildcats reached double-figures, including each of the other four starters alongside Boswell. Pelle Larsson had 15 (4-5 FG), Keshad Johnson had 14 and seven boards, Oumar Ballo had 12 and six, and Caleb Love added 12 points to go with four assists and three boards.

Freshman KJ Lewis had eight points, five steals, four rebounds, four assists, and a block in 17 minutes off the bench.

Arizona attacked the basket on the offensive end and aggressively attacked the ball on the defensive end. It had a 41-10 advantage in points off turnovers thanks to 25 Morgan State giveaways.

And the Wildcats held the visitors to just 20% shooting in the second half.

“You’re trying to establish a standard and you have a lot of guys who have never worn the Arizona uniform in a real game, so we really want to hammer home what our standards are,” Lloyd said. “I think, for the most part, our guys checked those boxes. I’m looking for effort, I’m looking for intelligence, and I’m looking for unselfishness. And for the most part, I think we had a lot of plays that exemplified that today.”

Arizona shot 55% from the floor and 44% from 3 as a team. It had 26 assists on 42 made baskets. The offensive efficiency fans have come to expect from a Lloyd-coached team was very much present despite a major changing of the guard in the rotation.

Lloyd’s group will head to Cameron Indoor Stadium next to face No. 2 Duke. Tipoff on Friday is set for 4 p.m. PT on ESPN2.