Victorious Arizona women’s basketball Senior Night features toughness, tenacity, tears

In Becky Burke’s mind, it wasn’t a tough call.

Arizona point guard Noelani Cornfield had spent the final 4 minutes and 53 seconds of Saturday’s game at Baylor on the bench after getting a technical foul for taunting. She had come off the bench for three straight games despite being the Wildcats’ most productive player.

But Burke wasn’t going to keep Cornfield out of the starting lineup on Senior Night.

“It's just doing the right thing,” Burke said after Arizona’s 75-67 victory over Houston on Tuesday night in the home finale at McKale Center. “It's their Senior Day; they need to hear their name one last time at McKale and have this opportunity.

“Did I want to do it? No. But it's the right decision. It’s something they're gonna look back on and remember, starting their last game here, and I think that's bigger than mistakes they've made or things that they've done.”

Senior forward Nora Francois, who hadn’t started since Feb. 1, joined Cornfield in the starting lineup. Both played starring roles as the Wildcats (12-16, 3-14 Big 12) overcame a six-point second quarter and rallied from a seven-point halftime deficit.

Cornfield had 18 points, including 14 in the second half, and a game-high nine assists. Francois had 12 points, including 10 in the second half, and a team-best seven rebounds.

The pair teamed up on the biggest play of the game.

Arizona trailed by one point, 51-50, with less than eight minutes to play. Francois stole the ball and fed it to Cornfield, who drove toward the basket before pulling up on the right wing. Cornfield then slung a pass to Sumayah Sugapong for a 3-pointer to put the Wildcats ahead to stay.

Sugapong, a junior, finished with a team-high 20 points and five steals. She also had 14 points in the second half.

“We're really good when we do certain things, and we're really bad when we go away from those certain things that we do to give us success,” Burke said. “We’re a very-small-margin-for-error team. When the ball is moving, we're pretty good. When we're guarding, we're pretty good. This is no news to anybody at this point.

“The six-point quarter? We've been there, we've done that. We have one per game. ... I didn't go into halftime today telling them anything they didn't know was coming.”

The team held its senior ceremony after the game. Three players were honored: Cornfield, Francois and guard Mickayla Perdue, who’s out for the season because of a wrist injury.

Every player who’s seen the court this season transferred to Arizona after Burke was hired last April. The fact that Cornfield, Francois and Perdue are one-and-done graduate students doesn’t lessen their impact on the program, Burke said.

“All three of these guys were really, really important to our team, statistically, leadership-wise, veterans (who) played a lot of basketball,” Burke said. “So I'm extremely thankful and really proud of what they brought. ... They put a lot into this program and this team. And we're not done yet.”

Arizona has one regular-season game left, at Utah on Saturday night. By virtue of Tuesday’s victory, the Wildcats are guaranteed to be the 14th or 15th seed in next week’s Big 12 Tournament. Houston (7-21, 1-16) will be the No. 16 seed.

That might not be the case if Cornfield hadn’t taken over in the second half. She did it despite taking a stray elbow to the face in the second quarter. Her mouth bleeding, Cornfield had to go to the locker room for repairs.

“Bart (Jameson, the team trainer) told me she had to go get stitches,” Burke said. “I said, ‘Tell them to hurry up.’ That’s toughness right there. She was still downhill and aggressive when she came back in.”

If any UA player didn’t mind having a swollen lip for Senior Night pictures, it was probably Cornfield. The 5-foot-6 guard is the toughest player, pound for pound, on the team. She regularly puts her body in harm’s way to take charges.

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“If she wants the pretty picture, she'll look at Buffalo’s Senior Night (last year),” Burke said. “If she wants the gritty picture, she'll look at these ones.”

Perdue a ‘special kid’

Perdue didn’t have the same Senior Night experience as Cornfield and Francois. The wrist injury Perdue suffered in early January ended her college playing career. She’s still wearing a cast.

But Perdue got the same treatment after the game — strolling through a tunnel of teammates with her parents, receiving a framed jersey and taking pictures with Burke and UA athletic director Desireé Reed-Francois at midcourt.

The moment hit Perdue in a way she wasn’t expecting.

“I’m not very emotional usually,” said Perdue, who was in tears as she walked onto the court for the postgame ceremony. “But when I really care deeply about something — and I care very deeply about the game of basketball and this team — it kind of gets to me.

“I'm thankful to be here. I'm thankful for Coach Burke giving me the opportunity to be here. This was my dream since I was a little kid, to play at this level, and I accomplished that.

“I'm thankful for my teammates, the people around me. I want to be a coach one day, eventually. I love being able to give my thoughts. I played a lot of basketball, a lot of years, and I'm glad to just be helpful.”

Perdue previously played at Toledo, Glenville State and Cleveland State. She has attended every game since getting hurt, providing support from the bench.

Perdue averaged a team-high 17.1 points in the 15 games she played. Burke believes Arizona would have “four or five more conference wins” if Perdue had been healthy.

“We got 18 points sitting on the bench right now, and our players are still battling and fighting and putting themselves in a position to win,” Burke said. “Things happen for a reason, and we trust that. I'm proud of our team for what they did without her. But wanted to bring her up (to the postgame podium) and have her have an opportunity to just share her thoughts on being here in Arizona, because she's a special kid.”

Rim shots

– Cornfield and Francois had the best plus/minus ratings for the game. Cornfield was plus-17, while Francois was plus-12.

– Arizona had more points in each of the last two quarters (27 in the third, 29 in the fourth) than it had in the first half (19).

– The Wildcats made 25 of 27 foul shots. It was their second-most made free throws this season (30 vs. BYU on Jan. 6) and tied for their third-most attempts (33 vs. BYU; 30 vs. Grambling on Nov. 16; 27 vs. New Mexico on Dec. 7).

– Arizona also honored two senior team managers: Cosie Prisand and Evan Ring.

– Houston forward Jorynn Ross played for Arizona last season. Ross had four points and two rebounds in 21 minutes before fouling out.

– Cougars forward Amirah Abdur-Rahim, who had 10 points and nine rebounds, is the sister of former NBA first-round pick Shareef Abdur-Rahim. There are 15 Abdur-Rahim siblings in all — 10 brothers and five sisters.

Photos: Arizona completes the comeback, drops Houston 75-67, Big 12 basketball