After 22 turnovers, several of them during a late blowout against UCLA, the game against another team that loves to take the ball away had the potential for major disaster. Instead, it led to one of Arizona’s best performances of the season.

Caleb Love had 23 points, 18 in the first half, and Arizona shot 58.2 percent while handling the ball much better in a 96-64 win over Samford on Wednesday night at McKale Center.

Anthony Dell’Orso And Trey Townsend had 14 points each, with Dell’Orso doing so in his first UA start, and both Jaden Bradley And KJ Lewis had 11 each for the Wildcats, who got back to .500 at 5-5 with one non-conference game remaining.

The Wildcats had 14 turnovers against Samford’s press, including 10 in the second half, but the Bulldogs (8-3) only managed to get 14 points out of those giveaways. Arizona turned 12 Samford turnovers into 23 points.

The UA outscored the Bulldogs 42-23 in rebounding and had a 48-20 point advantage in the game, including 37-12 in fast-break scoring. Samford made 12 3-pointers, but those were 35 attempts, and he shot 36.7 percent for the game.

Arizona led 56-33 at halftime thanks to a 60 percent shooting rate, a plus-15 margin on the boards and just four turnovers. Samford cut it to 60-46 less than four minutes into the second half by making five of seven shots (including a pair of threes) and keeping Arizona off the glass.

The Bulldogs held Arizona off the line for the first six-plus minutes of the second half before moving inside and ending the game. The Wildcats had five and one on the night, the fifth from Lewis, who pushed the lead back to 71-49 with 11:33 left.

Things got sloppy for a while, however, as Arizona turned over five straight possessions and six of seven in just over two minutes of play, but Samford only scored on two of those takeaways. The Bulldogs didn’t get closer than 17, with a 10-0 run making it 90-61 with 2:12 left.

The last points of this run came from the newcomer Emmanuel Stephenwho made his collegiate debut and recorded two points, one rebound and two fouls in the final 2:38.

Samford’s pressing didn’t work early, but his rim shooting did. The Bulldogs shot 5 of 8 from outside and trailed just 16-15 with 13:05 left in the first half, and they didn’t make their first 2-pointer until 10:32.

Arizona remained without a ball for the first five minutes and didn’t let itself get out of hand in the backcourt in the first six or more minutes. The ability to break the press led to many easy attacks and goals in the zone, as well as 18 free throw attempts before halftime.

Love’s pullup 3 in transition gave the UA a 39-21 lead with 5:52 left, and Dell’Orso’s 3 with 1:43 left before halftime made the score 54-29.

Arizona concludes nonconference play Saturday afternoon against Central Michigan. The Big 12 opener is Dec. 30 at home against TCU.