Freshman Koa Peat leads Arizona past reigning NCAA champion Florida - ESPN

LAS VEGAS — Freshman Koa Peat scored 30 points to lead No. 13 Arizona to a 93-87 win over third-ranked and reigning national champion Florida in the Hall of Fame Series on Monday night.

Peat was impressive in his college debut, shooting 11 of 18 from the floor and adding 7 rebounds and 5 assists. He was fouled while grabbing a defensive rebound with 14.2 seconds left and hit his two ensuing free throws to seal the victory in both teams' season opener.

But it was consecutive dunks by Peat late in the second half that sent the crowd at T-Mobile Arena into a frenzy and punctuated his first college game. Peat became the second Big 12 freshman to debut with 30 or more points, joining Kansas State's Michael Beasley, who had 32 in his debut in 2007.

Jaden Bradley was also impressive, scoring 27 points, including 11 of Arizona's final 18 points, to help seal the win. He also had 5 assists, making him and Peat the second pair of Arizona teammates in the past 30 seasons to each have 25 points and 5 assists in the same game. They join Chase Budinger and Nic Wise, who did it against Stanford on March 7, 2009.

Ivan Kharchenkov, who shook off an injury late in the first half that sent him to the locker room, finished with 12 points for the Wildcats.

Thomas Haugh led Florida with 27 points, Xaivian Lee scored 14 and Alex Condon and Micah Handlogten each had 11.

The Wildcats shot 49.2% (30 of 61) from the field, while Florida's poor second-half shooting (14 of 38, 36.8%) sealed its fate.

Florida is the first reigning champion to lose its season opener since Syracuse in 2003-04. Overall, the Gators are the fourth reigning champ to start 0-1 in the last 30 seasons. Only one of the previous three returned to the Final Four: Kentucky