“It’s so hard,” McMillan said. “We found two.”

With a gap in its schedule in mid-December, Arizona became one of those two teams. But as it turned out, both teams got pretty much exactly what they bargained for in the Wildcats’ 96-64 victory over the Bulldogs on Wednesday at McKale Center.

The Wildcats were able to break down the Bulldogs’ pressing and shifting defenses, especially in the first half, while UA coach Tommy Lloyd also had a chance to experiment with his rotation again.

Lloyd started Anthony Dell’Orso at shooting guard for the first time, experimented with freshman Carter Bryant at power forward and plucked Emmanuel Stephen from a potential redshirt season by inserting the 7-foot freshman late in the game.

Meanwhile, Samford (9-3) strengthened its defense in the second half while preparing for a Southern Conference race it is expected to win.

“The good thing for them is they still won by a big margin, so it’s good for their NET, but we appreciate the game,” McMillan said. “The opportunity to get out here is good for our guys.”

And individually, UA guard Caleb Love took advantage of the opportunity to get out of a near-season slump in the friendly McKale atmosphere. He scored 23 points on 7-for-14 shooting and made a season-high eight appearances at the free throw line.

“Thank God,” said Love, who was averaging 13.3 points and shooting 36.6% entering Wednesday’s game. “Just seeing the ball go through the basket was a great feeling.”

So Wednesday had something for everyone, including the fans at McKale Center, many of whom came to watch popular former Wildcat guard TJ McConnell be inducted into the UA Ring of Honor before the game.

Although the record was 5-5 in a final non-conference game against Central Michigan on Saturday, the Wildcats generally showed a more confident and resilient approach than they did in a 57-54 loss on Dec. 14 against a UCLA team that was worth on defense puts similarly intense, if different, fashion.

In the game, UA shot 58.2% from the field and outrebounded Samford 42-23. The Wildcats had 14 turnovers that led to 14 Samford points, but scored 23 points off Samford’s 12 turnovers.

Arizona also finished with a 48-20 lead, shaking off its normally subpar 3-point shooting (31.8%) and outscoring Samford 37-12 in fast-break points.

“We wanted them to not have all the spikes on the rim, but their size makes that difficult,” McMillan said. “The difference between high majors and low majors is size. And if they clean the glass the way they do and they manage to get the ball out in transition, that’s a problem.”

Five Wildcats scored in double figures, with Dell’Orso and Townsend each scoring 14 points and Townsend also collecting eight rebounds. Point guard Jaden Bradley had 11 points and six assists, while KJ Lewis had 11 points, including getting to the line for 7-on-7 free throws.

Love also found his way to the starting line far more often than he had all season. After making just 12 free throws total in the Wildcats’ last nine games, Love made six of eight free throws on Wednesday. He shot all eight free throws in the first half for a total of 17 points.

After losing five of their previous seven games, the Wildcats returned home and were at their most effective early on. Love hit a 3-pointer on UA’s first possession and the Wildcats took a 13-9 lead after making 5 of 9 shots and providing an assist each. They also didn’t turn the ball over once in that span.

That was a stark contrast to the team that committed 22 turnovers against UCLA, which led to 27 Bruin points.

“A little difference between the two teams, but both are very aggressive,” Townsend said of UCLA and Samford. “It just came down to being generally healthy, which we worked on a lot this week, and just being hard with the ball.”

Arizona’s ball handling and overall play declined slightly in the second half. At halftime, Arizona had a 23-point lead, but six minutes into the second half, Arizona was only ahead by 14 points after Samford scored seven straight points, including a three-pointer from Collin Holloway.

UA committed six turnovers in a three-minute span late in the second half, which helped the Bulldogs get under 20 points with just under five minutes left.

“We were able to handle the press, and the other thing you have to deal with is the changing defenses,” UA coach Tommy Lloyd said. “I think our guys did a good job for the most part because you can’t really get into rhythm calling sets, so you have to rely on concepts and fundamentals.

“Obviously we made a mistake in the second half. They do that to teams – they wear them down a little.”

Still, the Wildcats took an 88-61 lead with 2:38 to play after Henri Veesaar stole the ball, which led to two free throws from KJ Lewis. That was enough of an advantage for Lloyd to use Stephen after saying on Tuesday that he might not use him in the middle of a game against a difficult team like Samford.

Just 26 seconds later, Stephen parried an alley-oop feed from backup point guard Conrad Martinez, although the energetic freshman committed two fouls in the next minute.

“Great tip,” said Lloyd. “He’s ready and we’ll see how that works out. …When you see him, your eyes are on him, right? There’s always something happening.”