If the first 10 minutes of the Arizona men's basketball season-opening exhibition game last night was an indication of what is to come for the Wildcats this year, then the future looks very promising.

However, the second half was nothing to look back on.

"I'd give it a Cö," said sophomore center Channing Frye of the night's performance. "We had some unnecessary turnovers tonight, but it's good that we played a different team. It was a chance for us to discover the little knick-knacks that we don't see when we play against each other."

Without starters senior Luke Walton and sophomore Salim Stoudamire ÷ both of whom are out with ankle sprains ÷ two Arizona freshmen filled in nicely.

Hassan Adams and Andre Iguodala stepped into the starting lineup to lead Arizona to a sloppy 117-95 victory against the EA Sports All Stars in front of 14, 426 fans.

Adams led the way offensively with 27 points and was one of five UA players to finish in double-figures.

"I don't count the points that I score," Adams said. "I just go out and work hard and play to win."

The first 10 minutes of the game featured the Wildcats displaying their full-court press for the first time, which caused havoc for the EA Sports team as it was unable to bring the ball across half court.

The Wildcats jumped out to an early 19-point lead and never looked back, as they led 62-41 at halftime.

The second half began with a bang for Adams, as he scored Arizona's first 10 points, bringing the lead to 26 points with 18 minutes remaining.

However, what began as a good night filled with fast break dunks and solid perimeter defense, turned sour for the Wildcats.

The nation's No.1 team lacked the killer instinct to put the All Stars away.

The Wildcats committed 15 second-half turnovers, which allowed the opposition to get as close as 15 points with under five minutes remaining.

Arizona finished the game with 25 turnovers, with only two coming from the point guards senior Jason Gardner and sophomore Will Bynum.

"I'm really pleased with Jason and Will," head coach Lute Olson said. "They had 13 assists and only two turnovers. Jason had seven steals and that is an indication how better he is anticipating plays on the defensive end of the court.

Olson said Arizona's turnovers were due to the team playing out of control at certain parts of the game and not just converting the easy basket.

"The 25 turnovers occurred because we were out of control," Olson said. "We were using poor judgement. The freshmen committed 12 of those turnovers. We will get that straightened out. We have to show guys by position what needs to be done."

Iguodala finished with a game-high five turnovers.

Besides its poor handling of the basketball, Arizona's defense was unable to stop the perimeter players on the opposing team.

Defensively, the Wildcats pressured the opponent from the minute that the ball was put into play, but whenever EA Sports broke the press it was able to find one of its perimeter players wide open for a spot up three pointer.

"It was a fun game to watch, but we have to work on our defense," Walton said. "We also had 25 turnovers and we can never do that. Our coach is a teacher and he will show us what we need to work on."

The Stars shot 15 of 36 from behind the arc, including nine from former Wyoming player Brett McFall, who finished with a game-high 29 points.

"We were down 20 points the whole second half," McFall said. " It's tough to know that I was shooting so well and we were still down. But I Īm overjoyed that I was able to play and shoot so well tonight."

Arizona may have been lacking defensively, but they made up for it on the offensive end.

Gardner finished with 20 points, seven assists and seven steals, and center Channing Frye added 19 points and six rebounds. Senior forward Rick Anderson had a double- double with 14 points and 12 rebounds.

The Wildcats return to practice today to prepare for their next exhibition game next Wednesday against Team Nike at 7:30 p.m.

Sideline notes

Today is the day that high school players are able to sign an early national letter-of-intent. UA is expected to receive letters from Houston forward Ndudi Ebi and Philadelphia point guard Mustafa Shakur. The UA also has a commitment from high school junior wing Jawann McClellan, but is not eligible to sign a letter of intent until next fall·

Freshman Chris Dunn did not play last night, as it appears he might red-shirt this season·The student section gave McFall a hard time all night as they chanted "Rudy" every time he touched the ball, in reference to the Notre Dame football player who was undersized.