Foul trouble leads to loss for Arizona women’s basketball, leaves Becky Burke frustrated

The Arizona women’s basketball team faces challenges every time it steps onto the court. The Wildcats are undersized, and they’re missing their leading scorer.

Foul trouble makes a difficult situation that much harder.

The Wildcats received a painful reminder Tuesday night, when they couldn’t keep Kansas off the foul line. Whether it was poor fundamentals or questionable calls, the Cats gave the Jayhawks too many freebies.

Doing most of its damage from the stripe, Kansas pulled away from Arizona in the fourth quarter and defeated the Wildcats 80-69 at McKale Center.

Arizona was whistled for 29 fouls, its second-highest total this season. Kansas committed 15 fouls, tied for the second fewest by a UA opponent. The differential — minus-14 — was the largest of the season.

“It was a frustrating game to be able to get into a flow,” said UA coach Becky Burke, whose team lost its third straight to fall to 10-8, 1-6 in the Big 12. “I just thought our players were getting called for every little thing.”

Three Wildcats — Nora Francois, Achol Magot and Sumayah Sugapong — fouled out. Two others — Noelani Cornfield and Blessing Adebanjo — finished with four fouls apiece.

Kansas went 11 for 16 from the foul line in the fourth quarter despite Arizona not intentionally fouling until only 10 seconds remained. The Wildcats had just two foul shots in the period — and missed them both.

Overall, the Jayhawks (12-8, 2-6) were 18 of 25 from the stripe. The Wildcats were 11 of 13.

Burke questioned some of the calls and said she didn’t blame her players for expressing their frustration after some of them. She also lamented the fact that six of the fouls were for moving screens on the offensive end. Magot and Adebanjo each were whistled for multiple such infractions.

“We have one player that's having a moving-screen issue right now, and we've coached her through it,” Burke said. “We'll continue to coach her through it. That's a discipline problem. It's our job as coaches to continue to (emphasize that).

“Those are some examples of my frustrations. A lot of the fouls were not moving-screen calls.”

Burke believes her players are handling those frustrating situations better. But they can’t help the team when they’re off the floor.

“Early on in the season, we would pout and look up at the board and just be dramatic about stuff,” Burke said. “I can imagine how they're feeling as a player. I know how they're feeling as a player. I've been there. But it's positive to see our maturity.

“We'll send the clips in. We'll watch the film ourselves. Don't get me wrong — we were at fault for some of it, as well

“But it's hard when somebody is standing in there for a charge and she's planted for, like, 30 seconds before the kid runs into her. How do I correct that? It was a great play. It was called incorrectly.”

Arizona also allowed too many uncontested shots, whether in the lane (36 points in the paint) or beyond the 3-point arc (8 of 17). After expressing optimism following an encouraging effort at TCU on Saturday, Burke found little if any solace in another double-digit setback — even one that included a 12-0 run to tie the score late in the third quarter.

“I don’t like losing. I hate losing. I can’t stomach it,” Burke said. “I’m just done with all the, ‘You fought hard and congrats.’ I’m a winning/results person, so it’s frustrating.

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

“It’s hard when a couple people aren’t with us or locked in. We’re a team that really needs to be firing on all cylinders to win. (We) still find ourselves in a bunch of these games, which is nice. But it doesn’t make you feel any better if you don’t win it.

“There's a few of us that just weren't locked in today. For me, it's a listening/paying attention/executing thing. It's very, very simple stuff. We need to be locked in and do what we're asked and do it to the best of our ability, follow the game plan. ... We need everybody that checks in the basketball game for Arizona this year to be at their best.”

Davis dominates

Kansas forward Jaliya Davis has been named the Big 12 Freshman of the Week three weeks in a row. She might be on her way to No. 4.

Davis had 25 points, eight rebounds, three assists and a block in 36 minutes. She also had a team-best plus-14 plus/minus rating.

Davis scored almost every basket in close proximity of the hoop, taking advantage of poor coverage on slip-screen actions.

“She's a very talented offensive player who does her work early, tries to establish position,” KU coach Brandon Schneider said. “We get her some baskets through action, but she gets a lot of baskets just with effort plays, running the floor hard, offensive rebounds. She’s a terrific young player.”

Davis, a top-20 recruit from Overland Park, Kansas, has scored 20-plus points in seven of 11 appearances. She’s averaging 21.1 points per game and shooting 62.9% from the field.

“When you let somebody go off in the first half, they're gonna be feeling pretty good about themselves the rest of the game,” Burke said. “We didn't make her life difficult enough. All we talked about was how good she was, her physicality, the way that we were going to guard her. We made adjustments throughout the game. Some people did (it), and some people forgot about the adjustments.

“It was a very inconsistent effort defending her by our post group, and I will challenge them on that when we watch this film, because it just wasn't good enough. She's a great player, don't get me wrong. We weren't holding the kid scoreless. But (she) was way too efficient tonight, and that was not the game plan by any means.”

Rim shots

– UA redshirt freshman Kamryn Kitchen tied her career high with 16 points off the bench. She made 6 of 11 shots, including 4 of 8 3-pointers.

– Sugapong scored 17 points, the third time in four games she recorded 17 or more. She also had six rebounds, tying her second-best total this season.

– Guard Tanyuel Welch, Arizona’s leading rebounder, did not record a rebound in 25 minutes. She averaged 7.9 boards over the previous 10 games.

– Arizona’s next opponent, Iowa State, took a five-game losing streak into Wednesday night’s game vs. Cincinnati. The Cyclones started 14-0 and were ranked as high as No. 10 in the AP Top 25.

Photos: Arizona can't catch Kansas, falls 80-69, Big 12 basketball