SALT LAKE CITY — Mark Lyons scored 23 points and the sixth-seeded Arizona  Wildcats rolled past No. 11 seed Belmont 81-64 Thursday night in the second round of the NCAA tournament.
The Wildcats (26-7) used their huge size advantage to shut down the Bruins (26-7), who are 0-6 in tourney games.
Arizona held a 44-18 edge on the boards, outscored Belmont 36-18 in the paint, blocked five shots and outshot the Bruins from 3-point range.
The Wildcats made 9 of 17 3-pointers, including a critical one from Solomon Hill with 4:40 remaining to stop an 11-2 Belmont run, and shot 57 percent overall.
Bruins guard Ian Clark entered shooting better than 46 percent from 3-point range but was 3 of 8 from beyond the arc.
Kerron Johnson led Belmont with 22 points and Clark finished with 21.
Kevin Parrom, Kaleb Tarczewski and Nick Johnson added 12 points each for Arizona.
The Bruins were the trendy pick to upset Arizona because of their 3-point shooting, but they never could get it going. They were 2 of 13 at halftime when they trailed 32-20.
Arizona led by as many as 21 points, 64-43, with 7:45 remaining before Belmont went on a 10-0 run, capped by back-to-back 3-pointers by Clark and Mann. The 3s came just seven seconds apart as Mann stole the inbounds pass.
But Parrom countered with a driving layup and Hill hit another 3-pointer —Arizona’s eighth — to bump the Wildcats’ lead back to 15 points, 69-54, with 4:29 left.
Arizona’s size advantage was evident early as the Wildcats jumped out to a 14-4 lead thanks to a 14-3 edge on the boards and cold shooting by Belmont.
The Bruins made 1 of 11 to start, and were 0 of 4 from beyond the arc in the first eight minutes. Arizona also blocked a pair of Belmont shots.
Belmont wouldn’t hit its first 3-pointer until Johnson’s step-back shot with 10:55 left in the first half. Blake Jenkins followed with a towering dunk off a pass from Johnson to pull the Bruins to 14-9 and Clark’s first 3-pointer got Belmont within 16-14 with 8:33 left in the first half.
Arizona closed on a 16-6 run to take a 32-20 lead into the break.
At halftime, the Wildcats had made twice as many 3-pointers (4 of 9) than Belmont (2 of 13).
Clark was just 1 of 5 at halftime, although he was hitting 50 percent overall for 11 points in the opening half.
Hill, Arizona’s second-leading scorer, struggled with early foul trouble. His second foul, with 16:49 left in the first half, was on a technical, and he picked up No. 3 with 2:59 remaining in the half and sat down after scoring just three points.
Lyons was a steadying force, driving for layups and hitting 3 of 7 3-pointers.
He also put an exclamation point on his performance with a put-back dunk that gave Arizona 80-64 lead with 1:22 left.