Arizona guard Kyle Fogg dribbles past Oregon State's Lathen Wallace in the first half. The Wildcats evened their Pac-10 record at 2-2 with the victory at McKale.

DEAN KNUTH / arizona daily star

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The early trend is no surprise considering how thin Arizona's basketball roster has been.

It's just a matter of how the Wildcats are going to deal with fatigue in the second game of every two-game Pac-10 weekend this season.

Last week, after a tiring Arizona team lost 76-60 at Stanford, interim head coach Russ Pennell called the Wildcats' effort in an otherwise winnable game "horrible."

But on Saturday, in a 64-47 win over Oregon State, the Wildcats slogged through with an effort Pennell was much more pleased with.

Granted, it was Oregon State, picked to be the 10th-place team in the Pac-10 this season, it was a home game, and the Wildcats received the gift of having Beavers coach Craig Robinson ejected for words at officials toward the end of the game.

But it was a win, and what Pennell called a gritty win, at that.

He knows they will probably need more like this.

"When you get to mid-January, you've been going a long time," Pennell said. "You see a lot of teams that have to win some games on energy and toughness. If you can push through this next couple of weeks, you kind of get your second wind. … I think right now we're developing some mental toughness. We've got some work to do, but the message's getting across and the guys are really trying."

So even though bumped-and-bruised big man Jordan Hill had to will his way to an 11th double-double this season, even though point guard Nic Wise was off for a second straight game, and even though reserve guard Garland Judkins was held out for apparent disciplinary reasons, the Wildcats had enough to survive.

Now the Wildcats will move on to a dangerous road trip in Los Angeles with at least some semblance of confidence, a 2-2 conference record after sweeping the Oregon schools, and a chance, still, of competing for the league's upper echelon.

"It was huge," said Chase Budinger, who led the Wildcats in scoring with 24 points. "It shows that we have heart. We could have come here, dropped these two and really just defaulted the rest of the season. But we worked hard in practice the last couple days and we really improved. It showed the past couple of games."

Budinger showed both determination and pleasure Saturday, distancing himself further from a four-game slump of Dec.23 to Jan.4 by shooting 7 of 13 from the field and hitting 2 of 5 three-point attempts, with one of his misses going in and out of the basket. Budinger also had six rebounds, two assists, a block and a steal.

Pennell, who has consistently stood behind Budinger through his slump, did not appear surprised about his production.

"I haven't seen a whole lot of difference in his approach," Pennell said. "The math will always bear itself out. Chase, if he has a couple of bad games, he's going to get through it, and he had a good weekend."

One of Budinger's more fiery moments helped put Arizona in position to win the game during the second half. After taking a 34-21 lead at halftime, the Wildcats had gone scoreless in the first five minutes of the second half because of what Budinger said was simple missed shots.

However, UA wing Zane Johnson converted a three-point play with 14:58 to go to finally get them back on the scoreboard, and the Wildcats built their lead back up to 41-29 by the time Budinger barreled down the baseline for a dunk with 13:37 to go.

Later in the second half, it was Hill's turn to produce through fatigue and pain. Hill scored nine points and had one assist over the final seven minutes while the Beavers twice cut the Wildcats' lead under 10 points.

"Jordan played with a lot nicks and bruises and he just continues to fight through it," Pennell said. "He's as good a rebounder as you'll find. The guy is just all over the glass. He's so active.

"He's been incredibly valuable. I say it all the time: I think he's the best player in the Pac-10."

While Hill was hurting the Beavers inside, Robinson added to his team's troubles when he was ejected with 2:14 to go for receiving two technicals when he complained to officials that a foul was not called.

"That was just the point in the game at which I wanted our guys to know that I wasn't going to stand for them being pushed around anymore," Robinson said. "I just wanted to stand up for my guys out there."

Budinger hit all four resulting free throws to put Arizona up 59-47 and the Wildcats led by double digits the rest of the way.

So in the end, it didn't matter much to the Wildcats that a third hard-nosed effort did not show up much in the box score. Wise was 1 for 9 from the field, with three steals and four assists in 40 minutes.

Wise also played 35 minutes on Thursday against Oregon, when he had seven turnovers to his five assists. On Saturday, he had just two turnovers, while the Wildcats had their second-lowest turnover total (seven) of the season.

"We asked Nic to do a lot," Pennell said. "I thought today his shot wasn't falling but I thought he did some other things pretty well. It's tough right now when you're the point guard of this team and you've got to carry the ball as much as he does. I'm sure it takes its toll on him."