Arizona women's basketball encouraged by direction of program despite loss to No. 10 TCU

The road struggles continue for Arizona women's basketball.  

The Wildcats' latest setback was a 78-62 loss to 10th-ranked TCU Saturday afternoon at Schollmaier Arena in Fort Worth, Texas.

Arizona's loss to the Horned Frogs (18-2) is the third straight road loss in Big 12 play for the Wildcats. TCU has now won 37 straight home games and is in a three-way tie with Baylor and Texas Tech for first place in the Big 12.

In Arizona's second game without leading scorer Mickayla Perdue, who's out indefinitely with a wrist injury, first-year head coach Becky Burke was encouraged by the Wildcats' competitive and plucky performance against the highest-ranked opponent they've faced all season.  

"That's a heck of an effort by our group that I'm extremely proud of," Burke said. "We can go in the locker room and say we threw some punches, we gave it our all, we fought and battled and followed the game plan to perfection and was really effective.

"TCU is a great team, well-coached, we respected them at the highest level coming into this game, but we weren't planning on coming in here and losing. I was really proud of our team's effort for that fight." 

The rebuilding Wildcats in their first season under Burke stayed within striking distance of TCU, but foul trouble by Arizona and TCU's second-half scoring avalanche led to the Horned Frogs pulling away for a 16-point win.  

Arizona junior guard Sumayah Sugapong, who led the Wildcats with 17 points, sparked the Wildcats in the first quarter with nine points, four free-throws, an assist and a steal. Arizona senior point guard Noelani Cornfield scored five of her 11 points in the second quarter and dished out three assists, and the Wildcats took a halftime lead, 30-28. 

Burke said Arizona's defensive game plan was to not allow TCU All-American guard and Notre Dame transfer Olivia Miles, who had 16 points and seven assists, to "have space and time and comfort" with the ball.  

"We have guards who are half her size, but we can get in and bother her a little bit and get under her and be feisty with her," Burke said. "We know they're good at ball-screen offense, so we wanted to take away her space and vision. We also wanted to make the post less effective by not allowing them to catch the ball as much on rolls and throwback post entries. The game plan was really thoughtful and and well-planned out, but more so well-executed by our players." 

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Arizona's aggressive-style and handsy defenders led to fouls piling up, including three from Cornfield in the third quarter. Cornfield, sophomore forward Blessing Adebanjo and fifth-year forward Nora Francois each had four fouls in the third quarter, so the Wildcats had to turn to their reserve players, including Tucson native Achol Magot. 

The former Salpointe Catholic center and Texas Tech transfer tallied a career-high 12 points and seven rebounds in 16 minutes. The 6-7 Magot averaged 4.3 minutes per game entering Saturday's game. Burke said Magot's performance on Saturday was "by far her best game" as a Wildcat. 

"Achol had an interesting week, but she was ready when her number was called," Burke said. "I'm going to continue to challenge Achol to practice hard, to play hard and be ready for opportunities, because she looks different than anybody else on our team. She looks like the opposing post players.

"From a size and physicality standpoint, we need her presence. ... She was able to get out there and contribute in a way she hasn't so far this season, and we're going to need that in the second half of Big 12 play. Excited for her to gain that confidence today and build off of it." 

TCU made 9 of 11 free-throws in the third quarter and shot 57% from the field to score 27 points and grabbed a seven-point lead going into the fourth quarter. A 19-5 run between the end of the third quarter and the start of the fourth quarter put TCU ahead by 19 points, 72-53. Adebanjo and Cornfield both fouled out in the second half. 

Five Horned Frogs finished in double-figure scoring: Miles (16), center Clara Silva (15), guard Donovyn Hunter (12), guard Veronica Sheffey (11) and forward Marta Suarez (10). TCU outrebounded Arizona 41-28 — 11-3 in offensive rebounds. The Wildcats limited TCU to 7 for 29 (24%) from 3-point range.  

"We can hang with these caliber teams," Sugapong said. "I think the third quarter, just learning to adjust. They came out and made adjustments. We can hang with these teams. I know and the other girls are feeling good coming out of this game. We look forward to winning some in the coming weeks."

Added Burke: "There's a lot of things that our team can be down and out about, but they're not. They're fighting and battling and this is as proud as I've been sitting at the podium despite a loss."

Arizona fell to 10-7 this season and 1-5 in Big 12 play. The Wildcats host the Kansas Jayhawks at McKale Center Tuesday evening at 6, before back-to-back road games against 19th-ranked Iowa State and Arizona State to close out January. 

"Really proud of our group and this is something that we can build off of moving forward," Burke said. "I know this is the No. 10 team in the country, but that makes me encouraged about the future of Arizona basketball because I think we'll be competing like we did today for years to come — and hopefully win these types of games. ... That's where want to be: We want to have a No. 10 next to our name."