Arizona women’s basketball's Big 12 season opener saw a furious fourth-quarter comeback, but head coach Becky Burke wasn’t content with a “moral victory.”
On Monday, Arizona played its first power conference foe of the season and after trailing by as many as 18, rallied to lose 63-62 at home to Utah.
UA junior center Achol Magot's last-second shot came up short.
“If you're looking for me to sit up here and be happy about a moral victory, that's not how I feel, but I am really, really proud of them in a lot of different aspects of this game,” first-year Arizona coach Burke said. “I mean, I think you take away the second quarter and we win by probably close to 20 and it's frustrating, they know it. It just happened to be our worst scoring quarter of our entire season.”
Arizona Wildcats head coach Becky Burke talks to Arizona Wildcats forward Nora Francois (13) in the second half vs. Utah at McKale Center on Dec. 22, 2025. Utah won 63-62.
Arizona (9-3, 0-1 Big 12) outscored the Utes 19-15 in the first quarter and 20-14 in the third, but Utah had the 24-4 edge in the second.
“I think we just weren't hitting shots and that's not how it's supposed to be when you're not hitting shots, you're supposed to go back a get a stop, like you gotta make up for the things that aren't going well for you, and I don't think we did that,” said UA graduate student guard Mickayla Perdue about the second quarter. “I think we've seen, like, a lot of shots rolling in and out and everybody's dropping their heads and stuff like that and in those moments, those are the moments that we have to show how tough we are.”
After UA closed out the first quarter on a 7-0 run to take the lead, Utah (10-3, 1-0) opened the second on a 17-0 run to go ahead 32-19. Arizona didn’t score in the second until 3:18 left.
UA then went scoreless for about 2 minutes and 45 seconds before it got a layup just before the half ended. Utah led 39-23 at the break.
“We answered the bell in that second quarter, started to hone in on our defensive game plan,” said Utah head coach Gavin Petersen. “We'll live with those shots moving forward, we just got to learn how to capitalize them, capitalize on them, play through little touch fouls and just allow the game to just be in a flow state.”
In the third quarter, Arizona opened with a 7-0 run and then cut the Utah lead to six with 1:32 left in the frame after holding the Utes to one for their last eight field goals and went on a 6-0 run.
Then, in the fourth, UA held Utah scoreless for about five minutes.
Arizona Wildcats guard Mickayla Perdue (0) makes a drive towards the basket as Utah Utes guard Lani White (0) tracks her in the second half during a game at McKale Center on Dec. 22, 2025. Utah won 63-62.
Five Wildcats scored at least eight points, led by Perdue with 16, freshman forward Daniah Trammell had 12, graduate student guard Noelani Cornfield 11, junior guard Tanyuel Welch 11 and fifth-year forward Nora Francois scored 8.
“I thought we were a really tough team, I thought we showed tremendous, tremendous toughness for 20 minutes out of halftime when they could have just called it a day and been happy with their first half effort," Burke said. "So, what we showed is that we belong in this league. What we showed is that we're not going to be a team that people are excited to play, and that is gonna be a team that competes every single night. So, I'm excited. I told them they gave us a reason to come back and be motivated upon our return from Christmas break to continue to play in Big 12 play.
“Keep in mind that's our first Power Four opponent this season, so the fact that it was an upper tier Big 12 team and we handled it the way that we did, and we were as resilient as we were, makes me really happy to be their head coach and really excited to come back after break and continue to get better.”
Magot (Texas Tech) and sophomore guard Kamryn Kitchen (Virginia) are the only Wildcats who have played in a power conference before Monday.
Perdue previously played for Toledo, Division II Glenville State and Cleveland State.
“You've seen it's gonna be tough to get wins in the Big 12, every team's tough, every team's good," Perdue said. "But I think, like she said, it showed how tough we can be. When we’re at our best, I think we win this game. But we can't have, like she said, we can't have a quarter where it's a full quarter of not doing much, you know, and so I think we cut that quarter in half, we would have won the game, but, you know, the Big 12 is, it's here now. When we get back from break, it's time to lock in.”
Arizona moved up to 138 in the NET rankings, up from 144. Utah, at No. 46, is the UA’s first Quad 2 opponent of the season.
The Wildcats are 1-0 against Quad 3 and 8-2 against Quad 4.
Utah senior guard Lani White led all scorers with 26, but only six of those points came in the second half.
“I think I just let my foot off the gas, unfortunately, which is tough to say, but I was trying to focus on my defense,” White said. "I think I let turnovers get to me and a little bit of that fatigue, but we came out with the win, so I can only be happy.”
Up next for the Wildcats is their first road game of the season, Dec. 31, at Colorado (9-4, 0-1).
Arizona Wildcats guard Noelani Cornfield (4) tries to shoot the ball as Utah Utes guard Maty Wilke (23) defends in the first half in Tucson on Dec. 22, 2025.
Daytime fan support
Although Monday’s game had a noon tipoff on a weekday, the Wildcats nearly reached their season average in attendance with a crowd of 5,580.
On Sunday, the UA’s X (Twitter) account shared that they ranked sixth in the nation in nonconference attendance this year. Arizona was averaging 5,593 fans per game going into the Utah game.
“I love our fans, it’s not easy to have a coaching change and an entire team turnover and to stay invested,” Burke said. “I know it's hard, you have relationships with a staff, you have relationships with players and so for it to be a completely new slate and to give us a chance the way that these fans have. I think they've really, really, really fallen in love with some of our players and hopefully fallen in love with our staff and the way that we're doing things and our commitment back to them and our gratitude back to them.”
UA is second in the Big 12 in nonconference attendance. Last season, Arizona was second in the Big 12 in attendance and 10th in the country.
“Great road win at Arizona, where it is never easy,” Petersen said. “I think the home crowd is phenomenal for their team and gets going at the right times and made it another obstacle for us to overcome.”
Arizona’s season high attendance mark is 7,780 on Field Trip Day against Eastern Kentucky. Its high for a regular game is 6,014 against New Mexico.
Rim shots
– The Wildcats fell to 3-2 in day games. UA won its other weekday matinee, 87-83 over Eastern Kentucky, an 11 a.m. start.
