By Craig Degel
Arizona Daily Wildcat
November 3, 1997

Wildcats dial long distance in tied Red-Blue scrimmage

Dan Hoffman Arizona Daily Wildcat Arizona center A.J. Bramlett goes up for a layup in front of forward Bennett Davison (21) in Saturday night's Red-Blue scrimmage at McKale Center. The Red and Blue teams ended the game in a 110-110 tie in a game that saw very little defense.

The Arizona men's basketball team got a case of the heaves on Saturday night.

By design the Wildcats are a high-scoring offense and they gave the McKale Center crowd of 6,691 a taste of their three-point shooting ability in the annual Red-Blue scrimmage.

The two teams combined to throw up 59 threes - they hit 27 - in a high-scoring affair that ended tied at 110.

Senior guard Miles Simon led the Red team with a game-high 33 points, including 6 of 8 shooting from beyond the three-point line.

"That's the first time I've made that many since practice started," Simon said. "We were already third in the nation in scoring last year. Scoring in the 90s (per game) this year would be okay."

Simon's teammate Jason Terry hit six of 13 three-point attempts en route to 22 points and 13 assists.

Sophomore guard Mike Bibby hit just four of his 14 attempts but still recorded 28 points and nine assists for the Blue squad.

Redshirt freshman Quynn Tebbs made 5 of 10 threes for the Blue team and finished with 15 points.

"If people don't come out and guard (us), we can knock the shot down," head coach Lute Olson said.

As a result of the Wildcats' penchant for shooting the longball, the inside game will open up - as it did Saturday - and allow the post players some room to manuver and score.

For the Blue, Bennett Davison displayed a new weapon - his 15-foot jumpshot. He shoots it well in practice but until Saturday had trouble being consistent in game play. He tallied 21 points and pulled down 16 rebounds. Eugene Edgerson, whose offense was merely a rumor last year, had 22 points and 11 rebounds, nine of them offensive and displayed a baby hook shot that was not part of his game a year ago.

"Gene is consistently the most aggressive offensive player we have," Olson said.

For the Red squad, A.J. Bramlett and Donnell Harris had big nights offensively as well. Bramlett grabbed 10 rebounds and hit 13 of 16 shots to tally 30 points. Harris contributed 18 points and 12 rebounds.

The Red team got off to a quick start, Terry and Simon hit back-to-back threes for an 8-0 lead that extended to 18-8. The Blue took their first lead with 4:06 left in the first half on a three from Dickerson. The two teams went into the half tied at 53.

Edgerson's final two points came on a wide open alley-oop pass from Bibby and gave the Blue a short-lived 110-108 lead. However, Simon had one final answer and took the ball down the floor and rolled in a 10-footer as the buzzer sounded.