Arizona Wildcats notch rare victory in Tempe; career win No. 125 for Adia Barnes

TEMPE — If you were thinking the matchup Sunday was going to be a cakewalk for Arizona just because Arizona State is winless in the Pac-12, think again.

It’s a rivalry game after all. And playing in Tempe is never easy.

Coming in, UA coach Adia Barnes had won only once in ASU’s house, in 2019. Prior to that, you have to go back to 2000 — or 19 consecutive losses in Tempe.

It’s always physical. Mix in that Sun Devil-turned-Wildcat Jade Loville was back playing on her former home turf … well, it was going to be a battle.

That’s exactly what happened — until the Wildcats broke loose.

Hustling on both ends of the court and getting timely scoring and rebounding from Loville, Madi Conner and Esmery Martinez, No. 19 Arizona upended ASU 80-67 at Desert Financial Arena on Sunday.

Arizona (15-4, 5-3 Pac-12) ended a two-game losing streak, while ASU (7-12 0-8 Pac-12) hasn’t won since Dec. 17 against Prairie View A&M.

After the game, the Wildcats stood on the court facing their fans — three busloads of them who had made the trip north — and flashed the Wildcat sign. Fans chanted, “U of A! U of A!”

“It always means a little more because it’s your rival,” said Barnes, who has now won 125 games as coach of the Wildcats.

Martinez collected her fifth double-double of the season with 13 points and a game-high 15 rebounds. She added a block and an assist.

“She was relentless on the boards,” Barnes said. “(She) had a different sense of energy. … The last three or four games, she’s been in foul trouble every game. This is one of the first games where she could play minutes without having to step out with fouls. That enabled her to be on the court, and then seven offensive rebounds is a lot. She did a good job of converting on some of them.”

As a team, Arizona outrebounded ASU 51-31, including a 21-10 edge in offensive boards.

Conner led all Wildcats with 16 points. She also had four rebounds, two assists and one steal in 20 minutes. She played only 22 seconds in last Sunday’s loss at Utah.

Every time Arizona needed a big basket to end a rally by the Sun Devils and extend the lead, the big three of Loville, Martinez and Conner came up big. They weren’t the only ones, as freshman Kailyn Gilbert came off the bench and scored five quick points on a 3 from the corner and a jumper in the second quarter.

They all sensed the moment and delivered. Over and over again.

“For Kailyn to be coming off the bench and your first shot is a corner 3, (that) is a really hard shot to make,” Barnes said. “I think she’s really confident (in) what she does, and she’s not afraid to take those shots. That’s a good thing. I think (she) did a really good job of being the energizer bunny that we need and being that spark.”

Gilbert finished with 12 points (4 of 7 from the field) in 16 minutes.

ASU’s Tyi Skinner recorded her 1,000th career point on a layup in the third quarter. In Tucson, the last time these two teams met, she went off for 26 points. On Sunday it was Shaina Pellington’s assignment to contain her, and Skinner was held to only eight points on 3-of-12 shooting.

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Pellington scored 13 points and grabbed two steals. Loville finished with 11 points (3 of 5 3-pointers), three rebounds and an assist.

Arizona took the lead five minutes into the first quarter and never relinquished it. ASU never got closer than four points.

The Sun Devils were coming off two forfeits last weekend because they didn’t have enough healthy bodies to field a team. That didn’t stop them from being pesky all afternoon. But Arizona was winning 50/50 balls, containing ASU on defense and controlling the boards.

In the first half Arizona held Arizona State to only four second-chance points and outrebounded the Sun Devils 29-17.

ASU shot only 33% in the first half and finished at 38%. Meanwhile, Arizona finished shooting 43%, including 40% from the 3-point line

Down 43-31 at the half, ASU didn’t give up. Treasure Hunt hit back-to-back 3-pointers to cut Arizona’s lead to four, 45-41, forcing Barnes to call a timeout. Arizona responded with a pair of 3s from Loville, another one from Paris Clark and a putback from Martinez to go up 56-44 with three minutes left in the third quarter.

Barnes went to her bench early and often in this one. Every Wildcat made an appearance with less than five minutes left in the first half. She used different lineups, but the one that might have been the most effective in the first half featured Helena Pueyo, Loville, Maya Nnaji, Conner and Martinez.

The run to end the half started off with Loville knocking down a 3 from the corner to give Arizona a 36-29 lead. ASU closed the gap to six with a free throw, then Conner entered the game, drained a 3 and drove to the hoop on the next possession to give UA a 41-31 advantage.

Rim shots

It’s been a rough year attendance-wise for ASU’s first year coach, Natasha Adair, with injuries and losses piling up — so much so that ahead of Sunday’s rivalry matchup, the Sun Devils offered tickets in the lower bowl, plus a pregame pizza party for fans, for $10. The extra incentive didn’t help much, as Wildcat fans outnumbered Sun Devil fans at least two to one. The total announced attendance was 3,508.

The Wildcats celebrated their fall semester 3.36 GPA by going out to dinner Friday night at Mr. An’s.

The ASU band and students turned their backs when former Sun Devil Loville was introduced.

Pueyo finished with five points, eight rebounds, four assists and one steal.

From vandalism to kidnapping: 10 pranks from the UA-ASU rivalry

1937: ASU 'kidnapped' three Wildcats player

Updated Sep 20, 2021

It was a football conspiracy for the ages.

ASU pirated three top prospects from the UA’s campus six weeks before the 1937 opening game against, yep, ASU.

On a late August night in 1937, ASU student manager Tom Lillico devised a plan to get former Glendale High School all-state football players Walt Ruth, Wayne Pitts and Rex Hopper out of their UA dormitories and onto the ASU roster.

Lillico drove to Tucson and returned overnight with Pitts, Ruth and Hopper. 

Read the full story here. 

1958: Tempe Partisans Paint Signs On UA Buildings

Updated Jan 20, 2021

Vandals from Tempe vandalized UA sidewalks, windows and buildings after the UA opposed allowing the college up north to change its name from Arizona State College at Tempe to Arizona State University.

From the story at that time: "Lettering measuring from one to three feet and saying 'ASU-200. Yes.' was printed on sidewalks, windows and buildings. Principal target was the Student Union building where workers were kept busy Thursday trying to take off the paint."

1962: Slipup In Elaborate Plan Recovers Tempe's Bell

Updated Jan 20, 2021

Three University of Arizona students were apprehended by an off-duty sheriff's deputy who happened to see a missing 1,500-pound bell that had been reported stolen five weeks earlier from the ASU campus in the back of a horse trailer.

The students said they had planned to ring the huge bell during halftime activities at the traditional UA-ASU football game in Tucson.

From the story published at the time: "University police had expressed concern earlier that if the bell were smuggled into the stadium and rung it might cause a riot between the rival student bodies." Dep. Les Godare said it was a matter of luck that he stopped the students, "It was a precisioned-timed operation involving walkie-talkie radios, lookouts and a code that provided for the sighting of law officers," Godare said. The students were "pretty disgusted that their plans had failed only a few blocks from the university."

1986: Cops foil attempt to yellow 'A'

Updated Sep 20, 2021

Four ASU students were cited after the "A" on Sentinel Peak was painted yellow. When a police helicopter swooped over the mountain the officers spotted not only the repainted "A" but also seven men and a car. "ASU No. 1" was also scrawled on the road that winds to the top. Three men escaped but four were apprehended with yellow paint on their hands and shoes.

An anonymous band of Wildcat faithfuls slipped into Tempe and applied red and blue paint to the large "A" overlooking Sun Devil Stadium. UA students also hung an anti-ASU banner from the third floor of an ASU parking garage, chalked sidewalks and soaped windows with pro-UA epithets and put blue bubble bath in the fountain on the mall. "In terms of the pranks, we kind of dominated the week," boasted the UA student body president.

1989: 'A' Mountain paint strike thwarted; hapless Sun Devils given heave-ho

Updated Jan 20, 2021

Tucson police spotted ASU students, who had several gallons of gold paint, as they climbed "A" Mountain after they 'went up the wrong hill the first time.'

No arrests were made and the ASU students were escorted out of the city by police.

1990: ASU fans allegedly paint the 'A'

Updated Sep 20, 2021

An unknown group of vandals managed to splash some maroon and gold paint on the white-washed "A" shortly after midnight in November, 1990. The vandals left behind some rollers and a couple of buckets of paint.

Meanwhile in Tempe, after the "A" over Arizona State was vandalized, about 11 paint-splattered Wildcats were caught red-and-blue handed at a shopping mall.

2013: Vandals spray paint UA wildcat statue

Updated Sep 20, 2021

A 12-foot-tall bronze statue on the University of Arizona campus depicting four bobcats — a male, a female and two kittens — and benches near the sculpture were covered with yellow spray paint and the letters “ASU” in late November, 2013.

The vandalism came just days before the rivalry football game between the UA and Arizona State University.

The artwork, called “The Arizona Wildcat Family,” which sits south of the Administration Building, is dedicated to former UA President Peter Likins and his wife, Pat.

A power-washer and a chemical solution were used to remove the graffiti from the statue, and no permanent damage was done, said Chris Kopach, the then-assistant vice president of facilities management at the UA.

2013: ASU's 'A' gets a fresh coat of UA-red paint

Updated Jan 20, 2021

The "A'' on "A'' Mountain in Tempe — the home of Arizona State University — was painted red by Wildcats fans in November 2013 a few weeks before the big rivalry game. 

2014: UA fans paint ASU's 'A' red and blue overnight

Updated Jan 20, 2021

In early November 2014, homecoming fever got the best of some UA fans who painted Tempe's "A" Mountain red and blue. 

The UA fans who vandalized the mountain also wrote "Bear Down U of A" on the "A."

 

 

2015: Arizona Daily Wildcat pranked by ASU students

Updated Sep 9, 2021

Students at the University of Arizona were fooled by some ASU students into supporting fake legislation that would return the Tucson school to Mexico's possession.

Four ASU students drove down to UA's campus and posed as petitioners.

The group told UA students they were garnering signatures for "Proposition 200" that would return the university to Mexico as it supposedly was built on stolen land.

The petition signing was picked up by the UA's student newspaper, the Daily Wildcat.

The paper's editorial leaders wrote Wednesday that they were embarrassed by the bogus story and hoped a Wildcats' win in Saturday's game "will settle the score."

Read the Arizona Daily Wildcat story here.