Arizona Arizona/Arizona State Arizona St. Men's College Basketball recap on ESPN

TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) – It was a typical second half for Gilbert Arenas, and it was just what the eighth-ranked Arizona Wildcats needed to overcome a first-half funk.

Arenas scored 18 of his game-high 22 points in the first nine minutes of the second half as Arizona rebounded from a slow start to rout Arizona State 88-58 on Wednesday night.

"In the first half, we were struggling like we usually do," said Arenas, who shot 7-of-11 from the floor. "We just came out on a hot spree. All of us were contributing the ball and hitting big shots."

Michael Wright added 15 points and 12 rebounds, and Eugene Edgerson had 12 points for the Wildcats (19-7, 11-3 Pac-10), who won their 12th straight against the Sun Devils (11-14, 3-11). Arizona has won five of its last six, and 11 of 13 overall.

Brad Nahra, a former walk-on, scored 12 points and Chad Prewitt added 11 for Arizona State, which lost for the fourth time in five games. The Sun Devils have lost seven of their last nine at home, including a 1-6 mark in the Pac-10.

"Arizona came in and took the fight to us and took us out of everything we were trying to do," Arizona State coach Rob Evans said. "They intimidated us a little bit with their play."

Arenas, who scored 23 in Arizona's 86-75 victory over the Sun Devils last month, hit a pair of 3-pointers and added two free throws as the Wildcats opened the second half with a 15-0 run to extend a nine-point halftime lead to 49-25 with 16:29 remaining.

"Gil is becoming the go-to guy. It's as simple as that," Edgerson said. "Without him, we'd be in bad shape. He's the type of person you need come tournament time and down the stretch in the Pac-10."

Shawn Redhage ended the Sun Devils' scoring drought on a layup with 16:12 to go, but the Wildcats' onslaught continued.

The Wildcats outscored Arizona State 27-5 during the first 9:25 of the second half to take a 61-34 lead.

Arizona led by as many as 35 in the final minutes.

The Wildcats' torrid second-half start was in stark contrast to the Wildcats' sluggish first 20 minutes.

Awvee Storey's 18-foot jumper gave the Sun Devils an 11-8 lead with 12:53 left in the first half. But Justin Wessel and Jason Gardner hit consecutive 3-pointers to spark an 8-0 run and put Arizona ahead 16-11. And the Wildcats slowly stretched their lead from there.

Arizona opened its biggest lead of the first half, 28-16, when Wright hit the second of two free throws with 4:21 remaining.

The Wildcats hit just eight of 20 field-goal attempts, but went to the foul line often to take a 34-25 halftime lead.

Wright, Arizona's leading scorer at 16.5 points per game, missed his only field-goal attempt of the first half but was 9-of-11 from the line.

"They foul a lot," Wright said of the Sun Devils. "I was mad because I didn't knock the other two down."

As a team, the Wildcats connected on 16-of-21 first-half free-throw attempts to match the pattern established in the teams' first meeting Jan. 24. Arizona took advantage of 44 Arizona State fouls to take a 32-9 advantage at the line in its victory over the Sun Devils.

The Wildcats finished 36-of-47 from the line, compared to the Sun Devils' 14-for-23.

Among the 55 fouls called were three technicals, including a flagrant foul and ejection on Storey with 5:38 remaining. Prewitt and Arizona's Richard Jefferson also were called for technicals.

"I enjoy physical games, but I don't enjoy cheap shots," Edgerson said. "They were doing a couple of things that were outside the rules of basketball. At times, their guys were trying to hurt our guys and that ain't right."

Said Evans: "I'll take a look at the tape and see if there was any unnecessary stuff out there. I thought I saw some things on both ends. Some were called and some were not. If I see anything that shouldn't have been out there, I'll take care of it.

"My teams play hard. My teams will not play dirty."

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