Who: Cal State Northridge (0-2) at No. 19 Arizona (1-0)
Where: McKale Center
When: 5 p.m.
Radio: 1400-AM
Probable starters
Arizona
G Shaina Pellington (5-8 senior)
G/F Jade Loville (5-11 senior)
F Esmery Martinez (6-2 senior)
F Lauren Fields (5-9 senior)
F Cate Reese (6-2 senior)
Cal State Northridge
F Tess Amundsen (6-1 senior)
G Jordyn Jackson (5-4 senior)
G Anaiyah Tu’ua (5-9, sophomore)
F Ana Carolina De Jesus (6-3 sophomore)
F Kayanna Spriggs (6-s sophomore)
Key players
Cal State Northridge — Tess Amundsen
As Amundsen goes, the Matadors go. She shot 49% from 3-point range (56 for 114) last season, the best mark in Division I. Amundsen was the only player who scored in double figures earlier this season against Cal, putting up 10 points; she added seven points in a loss to Stanford.
Arizona — Esmery Martinez
When you think about Martinez, the first thing that comes to mind is her rebounds. In three years at West Virginia, Martinez pulled down 785 rebounds, averaging 9.0 per game. She’s been even better as a Wildcat, posting 15 rebounds Arizona’s season-opening win over NAU. Of course, Martinez is about more than rebounds. She scored 20 points against NAU and is capable of consistently scoring in double figures this season.
Matchup history
The Wildcats are 4-1 all-time against Cal State Northridge, including a 84-77 win over the Matadors a year ago. Arizona’s only loss to Northridge came in 2017, when they fell by three points in the LA suburb.
Sidelines
UA connection
Former UA assistant coach Morgan Valley, who is now an assistant at UConn, and CSUN’s Director of Operations, Willnett Crockett, were Huskies teammates for two seasons. Crockett is now back on the West Coast after spending 13 seasons as a Temple assistant.
Valley remembers Crockett being “super athletic and could do anything when she wanted to on the floor.” Take the 2003 national semifinal game against Texas. After spending the morning sick, Crockett — then a freshman — dominated the last 12 minutes of the game, scoring seven points, grabbing five rebounds and shutting down UT’s Stacy Stephens.
“She made the biggest play of the season. We were shooting a free throw, we missed and she got the offensive rebound. It was an amazing play,” Valley said.
Crockett forced Stephens to make a tough shot and grabbed another rebound with 8.2 seconds left, giving UConn a 71-69 win. UConn played Tennessee in the title game and walked away with its fourth championship.
He said it
“We need to defend the pick-and-roll well, but our focus should be on us. We have to do a better job on defensive transition. We have to do a better job rebounding the ball, we’re going to face a team that is completely different, more strength inside and probably a little bit less from the perimeter. We can’t allow easy fast break points and keep working on the individual responsibility — on our one-on-one defense to avoid unnecessary rotations and we are more covered on box outs. We have to do what we do best – force the opponent to turn the ball over and run in transition.” — UA assistant coach Salvo Coppa, who scouted the Matadors
Fun facts
Cal State Northridge: Carlene Mitchell replaced Lindsey Gottlieb as coach at UC Santa Barbara when Gottlieb took over at Cal. She was an assistant coach for the Chicago Sky; there, she coached Erica Wheele, now an Atlanta Dream teammate of Aari McDonald.
Arizona: Hasn’t had a freshman start at guard since the 2016-17 season, when Lucia Alonso started 27 of 30 games in her first season as a Wildcat.
Numbers game
1 — The 2022-23 season is Carlene Mitchell’s first as head coach without the interim tag. Last season she led Northridge to a 9-19 record and 5-12 mark in Big West play. The Matadors lost in the first round of the conference tourney.
3 — CSUN has started the season playing three Pac-12 teams on the road. Monday, they lost to Cal, 86-56; Wednesday, they dropped one to No. 2 Stanford, 104-40.
9 — Number of steals UA had in the lone loss to CSUN in 2017. Last year, the Wildcats only had eight steals.
— PJ Brown
