After the Arizona Wildcats defeated No. 22 Texas 83-58 on Sunday in Austin, they celebrated by getting ice cream.
On Monday, junior Aari McDonald got to celebrate some more, as she was named ESPNW’s Player of the Week for her 44-point performance in the game.
McDonald is the first Wildcat to earn this honor.
McDonald, who was also named the Pac-12 Player of the Week on Monday, set a Arizona single-game scoring record — breaking her own mark of 39. She went 14 of 18 from the field and was perfect from the free throw line — making all 14 of her attempts.
The Longhorns had no answer for McDonald. She just scored at will — whether three defenders crowded the paint and she snaked her way in between or she had an open 3-pointer. At the half, when Arizona (4-0) had a 38-19 lead, she had outscored Texas by three points on her own — 22-19.
ESPN even put out a highlight reel Sunday night of every basket McDonald scored.
For the week, which included a win at Chicago State last Tuesday, she was 79% shooting (23 of 29) and made all 20 of her free throws.
McDonald scored 24 points against Chicago State in only 20 minutes — the least amount of minutes she’s played in her two seasons as a Wildcat.
McDonald is averaging 25.0 points per game this year in just 27.0 minutes per game. She’s shooting 59.6% from the field and 90.9% from the free-throw line.
As a team, Arizona beat a ranked non-conference team for the first time in more than 10 years. They not only beat Texas, the Wildcats knocked out a team that had been in AP’s Top 25 list for 77 straight weeks. Despite this they only received 53 votes, not quite enough to crack the poll. UA got the 27th-most votes, one spot ahead of Arizona State. Oregon is No. 1 in the poll and Stanford is No. 3.
“It was a program-defining win; a big win. Texas is a well-established team that was ranked and to beat them at their place was very, very impressive,” said former coach Joan Bonvicini, who is now a Pac-12 broadcaster.
“I am very happy for Adia (Barnes). A lot of people will be patting them on the back now. They have to dismiss it and start over each day, each game. Honestly, it’s a long season ahead, but they are on their way.”
UA hosts Prairie View A&M at 11 a.m. on Wednesday.
