The Arizona Wildcats womenβs basketball team beat Colorado in Boulder on Friday night for a program-best 11th straight win. The 69-67 victory came behindΒ Aari McDonaldβs 32 points.
McDonald scored 11 of her 32 points in the fourth quarter to help ArizonaΒ (12-1, 2-0) fend off the Buffaloes after squandering a sizable lead.Β McDonald has scored at least 30 points in three games this season.
The Wildcats led for much of the first half, including a 40-31 advantage at halftime, but were outscored 26-14 in the third quarter as the Buffs grabbed a three-point lead.
The teams traded baskets through the fourth before McDonald was fouled on a layup with 1:50 remaining. The three-point play gave UA a 67-65 lead. After Colorado (10-3, 0-2) tied the score, Wildcats sophomoreΒ Sam ThomasΒ made a layup on a broken play with 34 seconds left to put the Wildcats on top for good.
The game-winner by @s_thomas14. pic.twitter.com/QZq6Va1HCd
— Arizona Women's Basketball (@ArizonaWBB) January 5, 2019
McDonald added a career-high eight steals to go along with five rebounds and four assists. Thomas had 11 points and three steals. Lucia Alonso hit four 3s to finish with 12 points.
Colorado dominated the boards, outrebounding Arizona 39-20, but the Wildcats made up for it by scoring 21 points off 21 turnovers. UA shot 50 percent from the field, including four of its final five shot attempts.
After upsetting then-No. 17 Arizona State 51-39 at home last week, the Wildcats are now 2-0 in Pac-12 play for the first time since the 2010-11 season. Arizona finishes the road trip at noon Sunday against Utah (12-1, 1-1), which suffered its first loss of the season 65-63 to ASU on Friday.
This article was compiled in part from a press release.
