Isis Beh leads Arizona past Texas Tech on Senior Night; injured Montaya Dew 'OK'

The Arizona women’s basketball team survived another scare Tuesday night. More than one, actually.

The Wildcats kept their NCAA Tournament hopes alive by defeating Texas Tech 66-57 at McKale Center. It was Arizona’s third straight win and its second in a row over a Big 12 bottom-feeder that required a strong second half.

The player who sparked Arizona in the third quarter, forward Montaya Dew, went down with an apparent injury to her surgically repaired left knee.

Dew, who wears a brace and sleeve on her left leg, slumped to the floor after trying to snare a rebound less than a minute into the fourth quarter. She had eight points and eight rebounds — including five and five in the third quarter, when Arizona expanded its lead from one point to eight. Dew started the second half and played the entirety of the third period while Breya Cunningham sat because of foul trouble.

UA coach Adia Barnes said the initial prognosis was positive.

“She’s OK health-wise,” Barnes said. “She might just be out like a day or two. The main thing is her ACL is good.”

After being helped to the locker room, Dew returned to the bench under her own power. She watched the rest of the game with an ice pack on her knee.

Dew saw her teammates hold the lead she helped build. The Lady Raiders (14-16, 3-14 Big 12) never got closer than four points in the fourth.

Fittingly, veteran forward Isis Beh played the role of closer on Senior Night. Beh scored five of her game-high 15 points in the fourth quarter. She also snagged two of her four rebounds and drew an offensive foul for the second time in the game.

As she sat down next to Barnes and teammate Paulina Paris for a postgame interview, the first thing Beh noted was how many minutes she played — a team-high 37. She’s averaging a career-high 27 minutes per game — and nearly 33 in conference play.

“If you would ask her, could she play 37 minutes last year, be on top of the press, be hedging on on-balls, she would have told you, ‘Heck no.’ She couldn’t have done 20 minutes last year,” Barnes said. “That’s the commitment to her body, her lifestyle and just wanting to be good and outworking people. She’s a ‘five’ and made herself a ‘four’ — and at the top of our press with our style. That’s hard to do. That’s a testament (to) hard work, outworking people, just the determination and the mentality to do it.”

Beh, who averaged 21.3 minutes last season, gave credit to strength coach Chris Allen, who just departed the program to take a job with the NFL’s New York Giants. Allen helped the entire roster improve its fitness.

When Beh decided to return for an extra season, Allen emphasized that she “had to come back for a reason.”

“He was working with me a lot in the offseason just to get my body right, lifestyle choices and stuff like that,” Beh said. “So I really wanted to give my best effort this year, do all I can for the team. I feel like I’ve been really focused on that.”

Beh was able to maintain her focus Tuesday despite participating in a pregame ceremony that sometimes can be emotionally overwhelming. Accompanied by her parents, Issachar and Champayne, Beh posed for pictures, waved to the crowd, then posted double figures for the ninth time in 17 conference games.

“I was really sad because the underclassmen were all crying before the game,” Beh said. “I was trying to tell them, ‘Yo, we got a game to play.’ Just trying to keep everyone focused. Tonight we can all hang out, and that’s when we can cry and stuff.”

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Coming off an overtime win over last-place Houston, Arizona improved to 18-12, 9-8 in the Big 12. The UA wraps up the regular season on Saturday at ASU, which was set to face Colorado on Wednesday night. The Big 12 Tournament begins a week from Wednesday.

If they can beat the Sun Devils, the Wildcats will be one win away from 20 victories — a benchmark that typically merits an NCAA berth for teams in power conferences.

“The game wasn’t beautiful, but we found a way to make plays and get the job done, even though at times we had some mental lapses,” Barnes said. “But the main thing this time of year is getting a win. It’s hard to win this time of year. Everybody’s backs are against the wall. Everybody wants to win and be in good position for the Big 12 Tournament and NCAA Tournament. I’m proud of us.”

Zoned out

Barnes said it’s too late in the season to make drastic changes. But she threw a curveball at Texas Tech that might have altered the outcome of the game.

Barnes, who almost always plays man-to-man defense, mixed in a 2-3 zone in the second half. The Lady Raiders did make an open 3-pointer against the zone, plus an unchecked weak-side putback, but they were thrown off just enough to make a difference.

“When they went to the zone, I didn’t think we handled that well at all,” Texas Tech coach Krista Gerlich said. “We can absolutely score against a zone, but we did not early; it took us a little while to get our feet down to be able to do that. But I thought that was the difference. I thought that’s where they grew their lead a little bit, and we weren’t really able to respond after that or to recover from it.”

Barnes said she went to the zone out of necessity. That defense, she joked, “is not my favorite.”

“I think they love when we play zone,” Barnes said of her players. “They’re like, ‘Thank you,’ because they think zone, you can relax a little bit. I hate zone. But we knew that they struggled against zone so we played it. I do not want to play zone typically.”

Texas Tech, which ranks near the bottom of the Big 12 in multiple offensive categories, made just 4 of 16 3-point shots.

Rim shots

– One other UA player, Ajae Yoakum, participated in the pregame ceremony. Yoakum, a transfer from FIU, did not play this season because of injury.

– Arizona also honored three senior team managers: Cosie Prisand, Paige Hronis and Ashtyn Frye.

– Two other Wildcats scored in double figures: guards Jada Williams (14 points) and Paris (11). Cunningham, again plagued by foul trouble, had six points and six rebounds in 11 minutes.

– Barnes addressed the fans after the game, thanking them for their support. “You’re the best fans in the world,” she said. “Without you, we don’t win games here. So I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

Photos: Arizona wraps home schedule with 66-57 win over Texas Tech, Big 12 basketball