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Aristode hit his six 3s on nine attempts, tying Mike Bibby, Salim Stoudamire, Jerryd Bayless and Bennedict Mathurin, who all hit six during their freshman seasons with the Wildcats.

Over his first two games at UA, Aristode didn't take a shot in six minutes against Florida and went 1 for 2 from 3-point range against Utah Tech on Nov. 7.

"I think he just had to find his way," UA coach Tommy Lloyd said. "All these guys have obviously had moments in our preparation and in our build this off season, to get ready for these games. But unfortunately, you don't get instant results, and so you've got to be able to hang with it a little bit and and get some experience under the lights."

"I expect all of our guys to continue to improve and I'm glad Dwayne had a little bit of a breakthrough."

While Aristode poured in 15 of his 18 points in the second half on 5-for-7 3-point shooting, four other Wildcats scored in double figures. Jaden Bradley had 13 points, Motiejus Krivas had 12 while Koa Peat and Tobe Awaka each had 10. Awaka added nine rebounds while playing only 22 minutes off the bench.

In what was the first game between the instate cousins in four seasons -- because Lloyd’s son, Liam, played two seasons for the Lumberjacks -- No. 5 Arizona led for good after the first three minutes and was never challenged.

Arizona shot 46.7% from the field and hit 11 of 26 3-pointers, dishing assists on 22 of its 28 made baskets.

The Wildcats had taken just 20 3-pointers over their first two games, making nine of them.

"We knew that wasn't who they are," NAU coach Shane Burcar said.

Leading 46-17 at halftime, the Wildcats went inside to get six points from Krivas over the first four minutes of the second half to take a 52-19 lead. They went on to lead by up to 39 points in the second half while Lloyd mixed in starters and key reserves with grad transfer guard Evan Nelson.

Lloyd then played other reserves and walk-ons over the final few minutes but did not play Mabil Mawut or Bryce James. Neither has played in all three of Arizona's games, leaving them eligible for an intentional redshirt.

"Obviously, redshirting is on the table for both of them," Lloyd said. "No final decisions have been made. But it's tough. It puts you in a tough situation, -- you play Bryce in a game like this for three minutes, it burns a year of eligibility. I wish it was easier. I wish there was a set number of games you could play a guy like they have in football."

Men's basketball players can't play in any regular-season games if they are to be eligible for a non-medical redshirt season, though no formal decision needs to ever be made -- either the player is eligible at the end of a season if he didn't play in a single game or he's not if he played a minute in any of them.

Last year, center Emmanuel Stephen entered the season intending to redshirt but began playing a reserve role after Krivas was declared out for the season in December, burning his redshirt. He transferred to UNLV after the season.

In the first half Tuesday, Bradley had 13 points and three assists to lead Arizona to a 46-17 halftime lead.

The Wildcats opened their scoring with two crowd-pleasing plays. Freshman guard Brayden Burries opened the scoring with a four-point play, hitting a 3-pointer from the left side while picking up a foul and making the ensuing free throw.

Then Peat threw in an alley-oop dunk on a feed from Awaka, who had entered two minutes into the game after Krivas picked up a shooting foul.

That began a 10-0 run that put UA ahead 14-5 just over five minutes into the game, with Bradley hitting 4 of 4 free throws and Anthony Dell’Orso making a 3-pointer during the run.

While Burcar said the game was a "big picture night" of learning lessons against the Wildcats, he quickly found it a difficult matchup to deal with.

"We got off to a decent start, and they overwhelmed us with their length, and they're pretty dang strong," Burcar said. "They started making some shots, and we're chasing our tail for the rest of the night."

The Wildcats went on a 16-0 run later in the half to take control of the game, gaining a 43-13 lead with 2:25 left after Dell'Orso hit another 3 and Peat scored inside off an NAU turnover.

Lloyd stuck with the same starting lineup he had over the first two games of the season, putting Bradley alongside Burries and Ivan Kharchenkov on the perimeter, with Peat and Krivas inside.

Though Lloyd said he wanted to play Nelson earlier in games, he said afterward he is "comfortable" with the eight-player rotation he has deployed, with Awaka, Dell'Orso and Aristode coming off the bench.

After two easy home wins followed their Nov. 3 season-opening win against defending national champion Florida, the fifth-ranked Wildcats (3-0) will face ranked teams in their next two games: Against No. 15 UCLA (3-0) at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles on Friday and at No. 3 UConn (3-0) on Nov. 19.