TUCSON, Ariz. -- The last time they played St. Mary's, two seasons ago, the Arizona Wildcats won by 60 points. This one was much, much closer.
Channing Frye scored 18 of his career-high 26 points in the second half and No. 7 Arizona escaped with an 84-78 victory over the stubborn Gaels on Wednesday night.
"I don't want to say we underestimated them, but this is a learning situation for us," Frye said. "This game was good for us."
Arizona (5-1) trailed 76-69 after Daniel Kickert's inside bank shot with 3:03 to play, but outscored the Gaels 15-2 the rest of the way.
Arizona never led in the second half until Salim Stoudamire passed inside to Frye for a layup to put the Wildcats up 79-78 with 55 seconds remaining.
Early in the second half, coach Lute Olson benched Frye and gave him a stern talking-to. Frye came out and dominated the game offensively after that, going 7-of-11 from the field in the second half.
"I had to step up," Frye said. "I think Coach was challenging me. He asked me if I even wanted to play out there because I was being soft. I am sick of people saying that. I went out and stepped up for my team."
Stoudamire scored six of his 16 points in the late run, including a steal of an inbounds pass and layup that cut the lead to 78-77 with 1:36 to play.
"What won it?" Stoudamire said. "Grit. You have to have grit in these situations."
Kickert and Paul Marigney each scored 19 points for the Gaels (6-4), while Frederic Adjiwanou had 17 points and 11 rebounds. Point guard E.J. Rowland had 11 points and 10 assists.
St. Mary's guard Tyler Herr was in McKale Center two seasons ago when the Gaels were routed.
"Our mindset was the biggest thing that has changed since our last game here," he said. "We are starting to understand that we are good. We didn't have that before. We are a good team now."
Frye also had nine rebounds and three blocks. Hassan Adams added 23 points and Andre Iguodala had 12 for the Wildcats. Until the late run, Arizona lacked the intensity that carried it to last week's victories over Texas and Marquette, both ranked teams.
"I just didn't think we played this as a big game like we did against Marquette," Olson said. "We are very, very young, and they have to understand that everybody we play it will be one of the biggest games of the year for them."
The Gaels, who lost to Southern California in overtime this season, went on a 19-4 run late in the first half and early in the second to go up 51-44 on Marigney's driving layup with 15:52 to play. St. Mary's led 59-52 after Jonathan Sanders' rebound basket with 11:39 left.
"We should have come out as if this was Marquette or Texas," Adams said. "We have to learn off this. This is a wake-up call."
Arizona tied it at 62 when Adams capped a 10-3 spurt with a breakaway stuff with 7:36 to play. But Herr hit two 3-pointers in a 12-3 outburst that put St. Mary's ahead 74-65 just 4:53 from the finish.
The Wildcats went 7-of-8 from the line in their final run, including 4-of-4 by Stoudamire.
"You get frustrated," St. Mary's coach Randy Bennett said. "You should have beat 'SC and you should have beat these guys, and we are 0-2. Yes, I know Arizona is in finals (exams) but to control the game, we had to play well, and we did."
The Gaels finished the first half with a 9-1 run to tie it at 41. Neither team scored in the last 2:08.
St. Mary's kept it going at the start of the second half, outscoring Arizona 10-3 in the first 4:08.
Arizona's lone first-half spark was a 9-0 spurt that put the Wildcats up 40-32 on Stoudamire's 3-pointer with 4:21 to play.
Marigney was 3-for-5 from 3-point range and scored 13 points in the first half for St. Mary's. Adams scored 14 points in the first half for Arizona on 6-for-8 shooting.
Arizona hasn't dropped a nonconference game at home since losing to Connecticut on Jan. 26, 2002.
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