Arizona women's basketball rallies to beat Houston in OT, 74-72

Arizona women’s basketball rallied from a late 13-point deficit and a buzzer beater to keep their NCAA tournament hopes alive.

The Wildcats (17-12, 8-8) dropped Houston 74-72 in overtime on the road despite trailing for over 31 minutes.

“We're lucky that we came with the win today, but we did and a win’s a win so thank goodness,” said UA head coach Adia Barnes.

Houston’s largest lead was 13 with 5:45 left but the UA went on an 18-2 run over 5:20. The Wildcats even took the lead by three with five seconds left but Houston graduate student guard Eylia Love hit a three-pointer with less than a second left to force overtime.

“I think we just woke up,” Barnes said. “I think we came to the realization with — we call it wars — we play five-minute segments, so we play the game in a game, so we did these five-minute wars and I think we realized down 13 in our last war, like we’re gonna lose this game.

“I think during the game, we kept on thinking we were gonna come back, waiting for someone else to do it and we just couldn't ever get stops,” she added. “And so I think the last four minutes it was like, ‘oh, shoot, we're gonna lose this game,’ I mean, these are must wins for us. I told them at this time in the year, everybody gets upset.”

UA has won two in a row as they try to secure a spot in the NCAA tournament.

Arizona opened the game on an 8-0 and 11-2 run after sophomore guard Jada Williams hit a couple three-pointers. However, Williams picked up a couple fouls in less than a minute and UA’s floor general had to leave the game.

Houston would take the lead at 16-14 with 1:21 left in the first quarter.

About halfway through the second quarter Houston extended their lead to double digits, 33-22.

Houston’s (5-21, 1-15) lone Big 12 win was 79-76 over then No. 24 Oklahoma State but against Arizona they had four players in double figures scoring, led by grad student guard Laila Blair, who had 21 points. Love had 18 points and 14 rebounds.

“Houston played a really good game, I think they're a lot better than their record shows,” Barnes said. “(Houston head coach Ronald) Hughey has them playing really hard and they outplayed us for I'd say 37 minutes of the game, if it wouldn't have been for Love getting in foul trouble and us getting a couple calls we probably don’t win this game. They were out muscling us, they were denying us, we couldn't get open. We didn't have an answer for their midrange game.”

UA also had four players in double figures with Williams and senior forward Isis Beh getting 18, sophomore forward Breya Cunningham scoring 17 and sophomore guard Skylar Jones having 16. Cunningham also had 15 rebounds and Beh was just short of a double-double with 9 rebounds.

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Jones’ 16 points all came in the second half.

“I think in the first half she got a little bit frustrated and honestly, the first half our guards didn't have a lot of points because they couldn't get open on the perimeter,” Barns said. “They were having a really hard time getting open and getting denied and kind of manhandled on the perimeter and I think they woke up a little bit, much more aggressive in the second half.”

Barnes said they took too many three pointers. They were 4-for-18 from beyond the arc.

“The threes were not falling, we were takers tonight, not makers and at one point I said, ‘hey, the three is not working, stop shooting threes,’” Barnes said.

UA shot 38.8% from the field and were out rebounded 43-29.

“I'm happy with our resilience,” Barnes said. “We were down, our backs were against the wall and we found a way to come back from a 13 point deficit, that deficit that shows a lot of grit and that shows some heart but we have to have that heart the whole game."

It was the Cats last regular season game outside of Arizona.

UA closes out the regular season home schedule with Texas Tech (14-15, 3-13) on Tuesday.

“I think that we are finally in the point of our season where we have a little bit more favorable schedule,” Barnes said, “We had the gauntlet before, so we know that these are wins we need and the way we came out of the game, we were not intense, we weren't ready and we turned it on.”

Rim shots

The ending of the game overlapped with the men’s game against BYU at McKale and UA officials aired it for the fans in Tucson.

“I wanted to say thanks to McKale because I know they played our game, the end of our game in overtime in McKale Center and the fans are going crazy, so I want to say thanks to everybody at home, our fans for doing that, helping us,” Barnes said. “They sent us some good vibes, they actually woke us up probably, so thank you.”

It’s Arizona second meeting with the Cougars, the first was a 75-59 loss in 1980 at home.

The Wildcats are 1-1 in overtime games this year, having lost 81-76 to Baylor in OT on Jan. 8 at home. UA outscored the Bears 22-15 in the fourth quarter to force overtime after trailing by 17 in the second quarter.