It was one of those games.
Every time Arizona started pulling away Sunday, Oregon State came back to keep it close. The No. 8-ranked Wildcats just couldn’t find enough breathing room.
Until the fourth quarter.
That’s when the swarming and trapping finally wore down the Beavers and Cate Reese & Co. went to work, outscoring OSU by 10 in the final 10 minutes en route to a 73-61 victory at McKale Center.
Arizona improves to 17-3, 7-3 in the Pac-12, while Oregon State drops to 11-7, 4-4.
UA has won 15 straight games at home — winning at McKale for the first time in their gray uniforms — and swept both Pac-12 weekend games for the second time this year.
“Oregon State kind of picks you apart on offense, really smart players, difficult to draw to guard had to switch a lot of different things to guard them,” Arizona coach Adia Barnes said. “I just think these are two solid wins at home (Oregon and Oregon State) — to get this sweep was really big for us for multiple reasons.”
Arizona forward Koi Love, right, had 16 points Sunday on 7-of-10 shooting. She had 24 total points in the weekend sweep of the Oregon schools.
The Wildcats were without one of their post players, Ariyah Copeland, who wasn’t at the game. After the game, Barnes said Copeland had a migraine and will be back for the ASU games this week, one in Tempe and one in Tucson.
Despite being one post down, and sophomore Lauren Ware getting into foul trouble early on — picking up two quick fouls in the first four minutes of the game and playing only 11 minutes total — Reese and Koi Love stepped up.
Reese led all scorers with 19 points — nine of them coming in the fourth quarter — along with eight rebounds. She played all 40 minutes for the first time in her career.
“I didn’t remember (that) I didn’t take her out at all,” Barnes said. “I thought that gave her a few minutes early and I looked I was like, ‘Wait, she played 40 minutes.’ She was doing some good things. … then we were going on a run, so it kept Cate at the five with Koi.”
Love, who has found her spot at the first player off the bench, chipped in 16 points on 7-of-10 shooting in 29 minutes. It was a good weekend for Love who had eight points, seven rebounds and three assists against No. 19 Oregon in the 63-48 win Friday night.
“(I’m) just adjusting to the style of play — the defensive part that is a part of everything that we do,” Love said. “Just being whatever my team needs me to be on the court, off the court. I want to win. I want to play, so whatever I had to do to get on the court, I was gonna do it.”
That includes not letting her opponent get much room to score on the defensive end. She guarded two of OSU’s top players and held them each under double digits, as Taya Corosdale had seven points and Ellie Mack had just two.
Heading into the fourth quarter, Arizona was up just 49-47. The Wildcats had back-to-back 3s from Madi Conner and Helena Pueyo, who both finished with five points. Conner’s next 3 attempt missed, but Reese was there for a put back to put the Wildcats up 57-53.
Love followed with a drive and Sam Thomas added a 3 from the top of the key to put UA 62-55. Thomas was the third UA scorer to hit double figures with 10 points. She added two steals and a block.
Arizona’s Cate Reese, right, had a team-high 19 points while playing 40 minutes for the first time in her career. “She was doing some good things. … then we were going on a run, so it kept Cate at the five with Koi (Love),” said UA coach Adia Barnes.
The Wildcats carried a 20-15 lead into the second quarter. Then the run started, Shaina Pellington hit a 3, Conner hit a floater inside, followed by a three-point play from Love, who scored on a fast break and drew a foul to give UA a 27-17 lead.
OSU climbed back into within one point twice over the next few minutes. With 1:24 left in the half, Love hit a mid-range jumper off an inbounds pass as UA went up 34-31. Reese followed with a layup and missed a free throw before OSU’s Talia Von Oelhoffen nailed a 3-pointer with 25 seconds left in the half to close the gap once again. UA took a 36-34 lead into the half.
Arizona forced 16 turnovers and scored 19 off of them. The Wildcats have forced 15 or more turnovers in 18 of the past 20 games.
On the flip side, UA had only three turnovers to tie a program record for fewest in a game. The last time was also against OSU on March 3, 2019.
UA shot 41% in the game, while OSU shot 44%.
Rim shots
Reese now sits in eighth place in UA history with 1,455 career points. Thomas moved into 10th place with 1,316 points.
OSU outrebounded UA 32-29.
UA and OSU both hit and attempted the same about of 3-pointers: 6 of 19.
