The trip to the mountain schools is one of the most difficult trips of the season. The Arizona women’s basketball team has to travel to two states — Utah and Colorado — and play in altitude.
Usually, if the first game doesn’t get to the team, the second one does.
This year there are a few extra challenges including the pandemic and very few nonconference games to work everything out.
In addition, as one of the best teams in the country at No. 6, Arizona has a big target on their back — the Wildcats get everyone’s best when they face them.
Friday night’s win against Colorado — coming back from a double-digit deficit — wasn’t easy.
However, in Salt Lake City on Sunday afternoon, it all looked different for the undefeated Wildcats.
Arizona punched first and kept punching, dominating Utah from the tip to cruise to a 77-60 victory Sunday at the Jon M. Huntsman Center.
Arizona improves to 6-0 overall and 5-0 in the Pac-12 while Utah drops to 2-4, 1-3.
This is the first time the Wildcats have ever started league play 5-0 and the first time ever they completed a road sweep of Colorado and Utah.
Both of these accomplishments are important for Arizona.
“It means a lot. … Honestly, this is on the hardest trips to come to the mountains — this is brutal. I mean, Utah wins 81% of the time here in Utah,” UA coach Adia Barnes said. “For us to start the Pac-12 this strong, it just pays dividends later.
“Last year, that was one of the things that put us in a really good situation — winning early, and then there’s not pressure at the end.”
It was a real team win and a balanced attack as 10 players scored, including three in double figures.
Aari McDonald led the way with 19 points to extend her consecutive game scoring in double figures streak to 72 — the longest active streak in the nation. She also had six steals, six rebounds and six assists.
Cate Reese (5 of 7) and Sam Thomas (4 of 8) each chipped in 11 points.
Right from the jump everything seemed to be working for Arizona. The defense was swarming and forcing travels, errant passes and grabbing steals. Their offense was clicking, as well.
Thomas connected on two from beyond the arc — she finished with three. Thomas — a career 35% shooter from beyond the arc — has been a little slow to get started this season.
She had only made two before this game.
“Something is starting to click,” McDonald said. “I wasn’t worried about Sam in the beginning. I knew she’d return to herself and today was the start. … I’m going to keep feeding her the ball and I know she is going to deliver and she’s going to score.”
At the end of the first quarter Shaina Pellington somehow found a seam when there wasn’t any daylight and scored with two seconds left in the first frame to give Arizona a 28-17 lead.
Pellington finished with nine points.
Arizona took a 41-33 lead into halftime. The Wildcats scored 24 points in the paint and shot 50% from the field in the first two quarters, while holding Utah to 39% shooting.
Coming out of the gate at the start of the third quarter, Thomas grabbed a steal and scored on a break — one of her two steals in the game — and McDonald followed with the same move a few moments later to give UA a 45-33 lead. That forced Utah into a quick timeout less than a minute into the frame.
The Wildcats had 15 steals and seven blocks.
The Wildcats’ defensive intensity picked up at the beginning of the fourth quarter with a full-court press, forcing back-to-back shot-clock violations. During a nearly three-minute stretch they held the Utes scoreless and took a commanding 72-56 lead.
“I think it’s starting to gel — I thought we really did a great job of sharing the ball,” Barnes said. “… (we did a) really good job of finding each other playing for each other. … Our pressing full court was really good.
“They couldn’t handle our press and had to call timeout early, and then we get confident and they were pumped. … Really proud of us the way we played.
“We’re growing, we’re getting better. We are not playing our best basketball at all. I think that we’re going to play better in a month. … I think that the more we can do it, the better we can play little by little, then we’re prepared for later. I think we’ll look like a different team in a month.”
Rim shots
- Colorado postponed its game against ASU on Sunday out of an abundance caution for COVID-19 protocols. The game hasn’t been rescheduled yet.
Barnes knew about the situation after the Wildcats game Friday night. After the game Sunday, she still had not shared the news with her team.
She didn’t know who it was on the Colorado squad, so she didn’t know who on the Wildcats needed to be contact traced. For Barnes, these last 48 hours have been very stressful.
“It’s scary,” she said. “I think they canceled it (the game) just to be safe. I think we’re safe because of the situation and the tracing. But it’s still very scary. It’s scary, because I don’t know, that could wipe us out for 10 days, I think. That’s just how the season’s going to go.
“And to be honest, when another team has a situation — if they are a player who plays a lot — it’s almost impossible, not to contact trace my players.”
- Arizona scored 29 points off Utah’s 22 turnovers.
Courtesy Pac-12.com
