Cate Reese, Madi Conner have red-letter days as Wildcats avenge loss to ASU

Sunday afternoon’s rematch between Arizona State and Arizona was the defensive battle everyone had expected.

The Wildcats avenged Friday night’s loss by playing their style on both ends of the court.

Freshman Madi Conner broke out with a career-high 16 points to lead No. 6 Arizona to a 62-58 victory over ASU Sunday at McKale Center. A “red-out” crowd of 8,480 watched as the Wildcats improved to 16-0 at home this season.

The UA improved to 18-4 overall and 8-4 in Pac-12 play. ASU fell to 12-9, 4-4.

“I’m really proud of our team and the way we bounced back,” Arizona coach Adia Barnes said. “We got it handed to us on Friday. ASU played so well (Friday) — I think (they) just dominated every part of the game. We could never bounce back after we got punched in the face. (I’m) proud of the way that we responded and just found the way to win.

“(Sunday) wasn’t the prettiest game. I thought we still made a lot of mistakes, but we still found a way and different people stepped up to get this one. It was a good win for us.”

The Wildcats held a full practice on Saturday and a detailed shoot-around on Sunday morning rather than their typical walk-through.

It worked. The Wildcats were able to persevere in a game that was tied 36-36 at halftime.

Conner came in at the end of the first quarter and knocked down a 3-pointer that cut ASU’s lead to two, 17-15. A minute later, Conner drove to the basket, then she hit another 3. The Phoenix-area native scored seven points in the second quarter and added six more in the second half. Conner hit 7 of her 10 shot attempts and added three assists and one steal.

“I thought Madi was incredible,” Barnes said. “(She was) one of the reasons why we won the game. She came in she loosened it up. …Madi hit shots. They lost a little bit on some actions. We had her running off screens, and she got some wide-open shots. And I think that Madi has a really quick trigger, and she’s able to come in off the bench and hit shots.”

Trailing 46-40 midway through the third quarter, the Wildcats went on an 11-3 run. Senior forward Cate Reese scored on a layup, and Koi Love had back-to-back steals leading to baskets from Conner and Reese. In a span of 42 seconds, the Wildcats tied it up.

Love then pulled down a key defensive rebound and Sam Thomas hit a three-pointer to end the quarter with a 51-49 lead.

Love finished with 11 points on 5 of 7 shooting while adding six rebounds, three assists and two steals.

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“My team needs me,” Love said. “I can’t be in foul trouble. I can’t not be there. … I know my team needs me on offense and defense. So, just being there for them. I said since I’ve been here, I’m trying to win. I want to do whatever the team needs me to do to win so we accomplish the mission tonight. Hopefully moving forward, we can keep doing that.”

And what was she seeing on the two steals?

“We needed to go out we need to score some points,” Love said. “… We got to convert. We were getting a lot of steals. We we’re turning them over early, but we weren’t converting like we wanted to. So (I) had to do something about that.”

UA added to the lead in the beginning of the fourth quarter, going up 57-51. ASU tied it up at 57 apiece with 1:45 left, but Love scored and the Wildcats were able to hold on.

Arizona held ASU to 33% shooting and forced 20 turnovers. Arizona has turned teams over at least 20 times in eight games this season.

ASU’s Jade Loville, who scored 27 points Friday night, was held to eight points as UA didn’t give her much space to get shots off; she attempted just seven shots after putting up 19 on Friday.

Arizona’s Bendu Yeaney finished with nine points, all of them coming in the first half. She added five rebounds and three steals.

Rim shots

Reese moved into seventh place on UA’s career points list on Friday night. She now has 1,490 points. She has scored in double-figures in 12 consecutive games.

UA out-rebounded ASU, 27-22.