No. 7 Arizona races past NAU in season opener at McKale Center

Adia Barnes tried to keep the Wildcats’ game-day routine as normal as she could, but it wasn’t easy. Not during a pandemic.

The pre-game meal was up on the concourse with players sitting eight feet apart. The No. 7-ranked Wildcats stayed in pods in the locker room and had shoot around with their masks on. They sat distanced on the bench and there were no fans in the stands, except for some family members.

But there were a few regular things: Barnes’ pre-game speech — something she never veers from, always staying consistent with her message.

And then banging the drum after the Wildcats defeated NAU 76-63 at McKale Center on Sunday afternoon.

It was Barnes’ fifth consecutive opening-game win in five years at Arizona. NAU drops to 1-1, while UA is 1-0.

113020-spt-ua wbkb-p24.JPG — Arizona Wildcats head coach Adia Barnes talks with the Arizona Wildcats during a timeout in the Arizona Wildcats's season opener against Northern Arizona University at McKale Center, 1721 E. Enke Rd., in Tucson, Ariz. on Nov. 29, 2020. Arizona won 76-63 over NAU.
Rebecca Sasnett / Arizona Daily Star

Arizona has now beaten NAU 16 straight times at home and hosts No. 9 UCLA in its Pac-12 opener Friday.

“It feels less together because it’s the situation,” said Barnes, who collected her 69th win. “But we were fine. I mean we rolled with it and did it but it’s very, very different.”

Something else that was different in this game was that it was junior forward Cate Reese coming out of the gate carrying her team on her back. She ended with her 16th career double-double on 21 points, 11 rebounds.

The last time these two teams faced each other — in Reese’s freshman year — she scored 21 points, as well.

Reese scored 11 of Arizona’s 18 points in the first quarter. She was driving and scoring and aggressive in all parts of her game.

“I’m not surprised at all,” Barnes said. “Cate has improved so much. She played today like she does every day in practice. And she goes hard. She’s been the one dominating our gold jerseys.

“She just played great. She was rebounding well, leading our fast breaks. She’s gotten so much better. I’m proud of her.”

Early into the fourth quarter she picked up her tenth rebound after altering a shot inside on defense.

113020-spt-ua wbkb-p11.JPG — Arizona Wildcats guard Derin Erdogan (10) dives for a lose ball during the fourth quarter of Arizona Wildcats's season opener against Northern Arizona University at McKale Center, 1721 E. Enke Rd., in Tucson, Ariz. on Nov. 29, 2020. Arizona won 76-63 over NAU.
Rebecca Sasnett / Arizona Daily Star

At the half Reese had 15 points and was 7 of 10 from the field with five rebounds.

After the game she said her “teammates did a good job finding her.”

Aari McDonald admitted she had some jitters coming into the game and she was a little slow to get started with her scoring. However, the other parts of her game were on point as she finished with eight assists, six steals, seven rebounds — and yes, 18 points.

“Aari is always Aari — her defensive effort and heart is never a question,” Barnes said. “She plays the passion every single night. It wasn’t her night. I thought some of it was she kind of wasn’t staying in her shot, just floating a little bit off balance. But those are shots she normally makes, and those shots look good and felt good to her. So those will come.

“I thought her defensive effort was great. … she did other things. And that’s what I love about Aari. Let’s say her buckets aren’t falling, and she’s not just feeling it on offense, she’s going to play defense, she’s gonna do other things to help us win. And that’s what she did today.”

With those 18 points, McDonald extended the longest active double-figures scoring streak in the country to 67 games.

The Wildcats got off to a slow start and led only 18-15 after the first quarter. Their defense started picking things up in the next frame as they held the Lumberjacks to two scoreless runs — one around four minutes, the other towards the end of the half was for a little over three minutes.

Former Pima Community College star J.J. Nakai hit a three-pointer to end that streak with 1:12 left in the half to bring the Lumberjacks within six, down 30-24 at the half.

Nakia would go on to finish with 17 points. Jacey Bailey and Emily were the only other Lumberjacks in double figures with 14 points.

After a few adjustments at the half, the Wildcats took over. Barnes said that she challenged her team and they came out with “more of a sense of urgency.”

113020-spt-ua wbkb-p1.JPG — Arizona Wildcats guard Aari McDonald (2) steals the ball from Northern Arizona Lumberjacks guard Nyah Moran (12) during the first half of Arizona Wildcats's season opener against NAU at McKale Center, 1721 E. Enke Rd., in Tucson, Ariz. on Nov. 29, 2020.
Rebecca Sasnett / Arizona Daily Star

And it showed, especially on defense.

“We just talked about coming out on point — especially for me, I wasn’t hedging on the screens and that was really affecting them on defense,” Reese said.

“We started hedging better, Aari got some good steals to push us ahead. We talked about boxing out, which is definitely something we need to improve on before Friday. And just transition defense wasn’t great for us. I think that just comes with communication and chemistry. We’ll definitely get better at that.”

At this point, there were glimpses of what is to come once Barnes settles into her rotations and the chemistry gels a bit more.

Trinity Baptiste went 6 of 9 for 12 points with her scoring coming inside and Shaina Pellington dropped 11 points. Freshman Lauren Ware tallied eight points, five rebounds and a block. The stat stuffer Sam Thomas was 3 of 5 for eight points, one steal, one block, three rebounds and two assists.

Barnes knows they have to tighten things up for league games, yet she was happy with what she saw in their first game in 266 days.

“I’m just blessed that we were able to play,” Barnes said. “I’m proud that we got the jitters out. We got our first game out — we were undefeated til today. Now we’re still undefeated, which is good. … I think you’ll see us improve in the next few days.”

Rim shots

* Some Wildcats had new kicks — customized Kyries with the Arizona block A — courtesy of Kyrie Irving. This is the second time that they’ve received shoes from the Brooklyn Net. In February they were the only team in the country wearing his new release. The connection is through assistant Jackie Nared Hairston’s husband, Josh, who played basketball at Duke with Irving.

* Reese needs only eight rebounds to hit 500 in her career.