With Cate Reese out, uninspired Wildcats fall to UCLA, 64-46

Arizona walked into Thursday night’s game against UCLA game facing a lot of questions.

First, who would start after coach Adia Barnes said all starting spots were wide open?

And who would step up to replace the points and intensity that Cate Reese, out with a dislocated shoulder, typically provides?

The first was answered right away: Koi Love replaced Reese in the starting lineup. That was the only change to the lineup.

Answers to the second question — and many more new ones — will have to wait. UCLA outscored the 12th-ranked Wildcats by 17 points in the second half on the way to a 64-46 win at McKale Center.

The Wildcats’ first home loss since Jan. 1, 2021 dropped them to 19-6 overall and 9-6 Pac-12 play. UCLA improves to 12-11 overall and 7-8 in the Pac-12.

“Rough game,” Barnes said. “Not the way that we obviously want to perform at home after a tough loss at Washington State. We knew it was gonna be a challenge without Cate. Cate’s our leading scorer who we miss a lot. She’s someone that can attack the rim inside. … I don’t know why the fight isn’t there. I mean, the fight should always be there.”

022522-tuc-spt-uawomenshoops-p2 — UCLA guard Charisma Osborne grabs the ball as Arizona guard Derin Erdogan looks on during Thursday’s first half.
Mamta Popat, Arizona Daily Star

Shaina Pellington led all UA scorers with 14 points and three steals. Bendu Yeaney was the only other Wildcat to score in double figures, putting up 10 points. She added a steal and two rebounds.

In the first half it looked like Ariyah Copeland was going to fill the void left by Reese. The Alabama transfer posted five rebounds and six points in a seven-minute span, but would add only two more rebounds the rest of the way. Copeland played for the first time since Feb. 4 after sitting out with migraine headaches.

Despite its struggled, Arizona managed to tie the game at 28-28 with 8:43 left in the third quarter thanks to a free throw from Yeaney. UCLA’s Jaelynn Penn then hit a 3-pointer on the next possession to give the Bruins a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.

Yeaney was frustrated with what she saw as sloppy play — especially this late in the season.

“We got one more game left and half our team doesn’t know the plays,” Yeaney said. “It’s hard to run offense when we don’t know the plays.”

There were plenty of moments when it looked like the Wildcats would make a run, but the Bruins kept extending the lead. UCLA outrebounded the UA, 48-26. Barnes blamed loss on Arizona’s inability to grab defensive rebounds.

“I think the frustrating thing for me today was just the toughness,” Barnes said. “I think we really lacked toughness, allowing UCLA to continuously take rebounds and offensive rebounds after offensive rebound after offensive rebound. … (They) played a good game. They definitely exploited a weakness of ours and we never responded. We responded for probably like two or three minutes in the game. And just did not play the way we need to play to win.”

UA seemed out of sync without Reese out-maneuvering and wearing out her opponent on both ends of the court.

“Cate is a big presence,” Yeaney said. “Playing them the first time (this season), I think she gave them 17 points. She give us that every night and almost 10 rebounds every night. So not having that hurts us. Hurts us with size — people have to play other positions and things like that. But at the end of the day it comes down to effort. We knew we had to step up. We knew we had to step up this week because we are missing her. That’s what we needed to have extra focus in practice, which we did on Tuesday. We had a really good practice yesterday, but it just didn’t click in the game.”

Rim shots

UA guard Taylor Chavez did not play Thursday night in what Barnes said was a mutual decision between she and the Oregon transfer. Barnes said Chavez will be back for Saturday’s regular-season finale against USC.

What can Arizona do to turn it around? Barnes said it’s up to the players “to figure it out.”

“They’ve got to get tired of losing right now. I don’t think they are,” Barnes said. … “We may lose, but we’re going to play hard. We’re going to box out if someone’s kicking our butt and we’re going to have a mentality (of) a fighter. And right now, we don’t have that.”