When Arizona sophomore guard Miles Simon dunked the ball with 40 seconds left in Saturday's game, it was an exclamation point on his emergence as a premier scorer on the team.

"Miles did a great job on finishing the plays," UA senior guard Reggie Geary said. "He hit his 3s when he had the open shot and he dunked the ball when he had the opening."

Simon finished with a career-high 25 points on 8-of-11 shooting from the field. While he could be characterized as "on fire" throughout the night, his 73 percent shooting is a tribute to his moving without the ball and finding the open seam.

"I think I really shot the ball well tonight," Simon said. "I think I've really been in a slump the last couple of weeks. I just wanted to come out and get back into my old form, and I think I did that. But the team did a good job of just getting me the ball when I was open."

While he started out with a miss from 3-point range, Simon quickly adjusted his sights, going on to make his final four 3-point shots of the half. Add a layup as time expired in the first half and the end result is a game-high 14 points at the intermission.

"When I came out on the floor, I felt good in warmups, so I knew I could have a good night," Simon said. "I missed my first one, but I thought it was going in. After that I hit four in a row, so my confidence was pretty high going into the halftime break."

It was after the break that Simon showed his versatility. Towson State realized Simon's outside presence was hurting it, so the defense made a point of having at least one guy in his face at every outside shot opportunity.

And after a first half of outside marksmanship, Simon took the ball to the basket to show Towson State just another weapon in his increasing arsenal. He finished with six second-half trips to the free-throw line and two layups.

"The second half was a little different for me," Simon said. "They came more out on me and I wasn't getting the good looks I had in the first half. So basically, I just had to penetrate and drive to the basket a little more."

Arizona coach Lute Olson said he was as impressed with the way Simon took care of the ball as the way he shot. Simon, who had been turnover-prone of late, finished with only two to offset his four assists.

"I think we know that Miles has to be our most consistent perimeter shooter, but he is also our second ball-handler we rely on," Olson said. "I think that his decision making was excellent today."