Arizona likes Texas. A lot.
Three years ago, Arizona came out of nowhere to topple then-No. 22 Texas by 25 points in Austin.
Sunday night, the UA handled No. 18 Baylor, 75-54, in Dallas at the Pac-12 Coast-to-Coast Challenge.
While the games were completely different in the way they won, both made statements.
Three years ago, the Wildcats were just trying to put their name on the map. They had won the WNIT in the spring and had their eyes set on making the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 15 years. Had it not been for COVID-19 and the cancellation of the event, UA would have done just that.
Arizona’s 83-58 win over Texas introduced the nation to Aari McDonald. The Wildcats’ star guard scored 44 points on 14 of 18 shooting; she also hit all 14 of her free throw attempts.
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Only other Wildcat — Cate Reese — scored in double-figures that day. She put up 17 points, grabbed seven rebounds and picked three steals.
Reese, who is from the Houston suburb of Cypress, Texas, was stellar again on Sunday. She put up 13 points and 13 rebounds in the nationally televised win. All of Reese’s points came inside, starting with a turnaround jumper that gave UA an early 8-5 lead. Reese has now put up 22 double-doubles in her career.
In the 2019-2020 season, the Wildcats finished 24-7 and went on to beat four other ranked teams — ASU, UCLA, Oregon State and Stanford.
Could Sunday be the start of something similar?
Moving up
It didn’t take long for the Wildcats to kick things up a notch.
At the end of Sunday’s first quarter, Shaina Pellington grabbed a steal and scored on a layup to give UA a three-point lead. Arizona would outscore Baylor 24-15 in the second quarter and take a 43-31 lead into halftime.
UA went on 10-0 run in the second quarter, forcing five consecutive turnovers. Throughout the game, Baylor had scoring droughts of two or three minutes at a time.
Arizona forced 19 turnovers while limiting the Bears to 32.8% shooting.
This performance follows a second half against Texas Southern on Wednesday, in which UA only allowed the Tigers to score 15 points.
After that game, Reese said that things were starting to click.
Pellington steps up
Pellington posted one of her most efficient performances in Sunday’s win. The Wildcats’ point guard 18 points, going 6 of 9 from the field while hitting all six of her free throws. Pellington also dished a UA career high eight assists, pulled down four rebounds and picked three steals.
Pellington’s baskets all came while driving to the hoop. She didn’t attempt one outside shot.
The showing came one game after Pellington, who started every game last season, came off the bench against Texas Southern. She played for 13 minutes in that game.
Pellington’s numbers are up this season. She is averaging 14.1 points, 3.5 assists and 3.1 rebounds per game. She also has collected 16 steals in 10 games.
Rim shots
How much has going back to the basics helped the Wildcats? Against Baylor, Arizona scored 25 points off turnovers and 18 on fast breaks while hitting 9 of 12 free throws. Against Kansas, the Wildcats’ only loss of the season, UA scored 11 points on turnovers, made 4 of 9 free throws and scored only six fast-break points.
Arizona (9-1) moved up two spots in the AP poll to 18 on Monday.
Contact sports reporter PJ Brown at pjbrown@tucson.com. On Twitter: @PJBrown09