Roxy White officially signs in UA's Class of 2025; Cunningham needs a rebound; Swann's moment

Just one day after Roxy White announced her verbal commitment to Arizona women’s basketball, she officially signed to play for the Wildcats starting in the 2025-26 season on Wednesday morning — the opening of the early signing period.

Arizona coach Adia Barnes dipped back into the Midwest or specifically Illinois footprint – as White is from Frankfort, Illinois – and sophomore Skylar Jones is from Chicago.

“We are so excited to welcome Roxy to our program,” Barnes said. “She is a fierce competitor who brings strength, toughness and incredible versatility to the court. Roxy’s ability to excel at multiple positions reminds me of me as a player — she’s got that ‘dawg’ mentality and plays with a chip on her shoulder. I can’t wait to see the impact that she’ll make here.”

The 5-11 small forward plays for Example Academy — which competes against prep teams like AZ Compass Prep and IMG Academy — and helped her squad to the Grind Session World Championship last season. Example Academy also won back-to-back (2022, 2023) national Insider Exposure School titles.

White was team MVP, Grind Session under-the-radar player of the year and a three-time Grind Session game MVP. She earned tournament MVPs at both the Insider Exposure Tournament and She Got Game Classic.

So close

Sophomore forward Breya Cunningham has been dominating the early-season games. She is so close to averaging a double-double with 13.3 points and nine rebounds per game.

After Tuesday’s 75-66 win over UNLV, Cunningham asked Barnes, “How am I going to almost average a double-double?”

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“It was funny because she keeps getting nine rebounds, and the last game she fouled, so I ran someone over, pushed them over to get that 10th, but they didn’t count it,” Barnes said. “But she’s just a bucket for us right now. She’s gotten so much better. I mean, 4 for 7 (from the field), and then 4 for 5 (from the free throw line). That’s with congestion, a double-triple team.

“She’s a bucket inside. She’s confident. She’s feeling good. She’s playing well. I’m proud of her, because she’s gotten stronger in the off season. We were looking at video last year at UNLV. She was like, ‘God, you could barely see me. I was so skinny.’ because she had lost a ton of weight. But she’s gotten her strength back. She feels good. She’s playing good. Her hands are phenomenal. She’s doing great.”

One other area that stood out, especially on Tuesday night, was the steals — three of them in the box score, although the UA coaching staff counted four. Still, Cunningham earned the “thief” in the Go Beyond awards for the game.

“We’re like ‘take a picture; save it. Breya, you’ve never had four steals,’” Barnes said of the conversation in the locker room. “She was like, ‘yeah,’ and was celebrating.”

The spark

Freshman Lauryn Swann came off the bench against UNLV at the perfect time to spark her teammates to overtake the Lady Rebels. She only missed one of her nine attempted shots to finish with 19 points.

“The energy throughout the whole game while I was in was contagious,” Swann said. “I just fed off that so I’ve got to thank my teammates.”

She added that she has never been on a roll like that just reeling off layups, mid-range jumpers and 3’s, “(There’s) a first time for everything.”

Injury watch

Brooklyn Rhodes was cleared to play on Monday after suffering a concussion before the home opener.