Arizona likes Texas. A lot.
Three years ago, Arizona came out of nowhere to topple then-No. 22 Texas by 25 points in Austin.
Sunday night, the UA handled No. 18 Baylor, 75-54, in Dallas at the Pac-12 Coast-to-Coast Challenge.
While the games were completely different in the way they won, both made statements.
Three years ago, the Wildcats were just trying to put their name on the map. They had won the WNIT in the spring and had their eyes set on making the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 15 years. Had it not been for COVID-19 and the cancellation of the event, UA would have done just that.
Arizonaβs 83-58 win over Texas introduced the nation to Aari McDonald. The Wildcatsβ star guard scored 44 points on 14 of 18 shooting; she also hit all 14 of her free throw attempts.
Only other Wildcat β Cate Reese β scored in double-figures that day. She put up 17 points, grabbed seven rebounds and picked three steals.
Reese, who is from the Houston suburb of Cypress, Texas, was stellar again on Sunday. She put up 13 points and 13 rebounds in the nationally televised win. All of Reeseβs points came inside, starting with a turnaround jumper that gave UA an early 8-5 lead. Reese has now put up 22 double-doubles in her career.
In the 2019-2020 season, the Wildcats finished 24-7 and went on to beat four other ranked teams β ASU, UCLA, Oregon State and Stanford.
Could Sunday be the start of something similar?
Moving up
It didnβt take long for the Wildcats to kick things up a notch.
At the end of Sundayβs first quarter, Shaina Pellington grabbed a steal and scored on a layup to give UA a three-point lead. Arizona would outscore Baylor 24-15 in the second quarter and take a 43-31 lead into halftime.
UA went on 10-0 run in the second quarter, forcing five consecutive turnovers. Throughout the game, Baylor had scoring droughts of two or three minutes at a time.
Arizona forced 19 turnovers while limiting the Bears to 32.8% shooting.
This performance follows a second half against Texas Southern on Wednesday, in which UA only allowed the Tigers to score 15 points.
After that game, Reese said that things were starting to click.
Pellington steps up
Pellington posted one of her most efficient performances in Sundayβs win. The Wildcatsβ point guard 18 points, going 6 of 9 from the field while hitting all six of her free throws. Pellington also dished a UA career high eight assists, pulled down four rebounds and picked three steals.
Pellingtonβs baskets all came while driving to the hoop. She didnβt attempt one outside shot.
The showing came one game after Pellington, who started every game last season, came off the bench against Texas Southern. She played for 13 minutes in that game.
Pellingtonβs numbers are up this season. She is averaging 14.1 points, 3.5 assists and 3.1 rebounds per game. She also has collected 16 steals in 10 games.
Rim shots
How much has going back to the basics helped the Wildcats? Against Baylor, Arizona scored 25 points off turnovers and 18 on fast breaks while hitting 9 of 12 free throws. Against Kansas, the Wildcatsβ only loss of the season, UA scored 11 points on turnovers, made 4 of 9 free throws and scored only six fast-break points.
Arizona (9-1) moved up two spots in the AP poll to 18 on Monday.
Some of the giants of women's basketball say if not for Title IX, doors would not have been open for them to blaze trails on the court, off the court and in the broadcast booth _ careers that landed them in the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. Marsha Sharp, who coached Texas Tech to the 1993 national championship, takes it a step farther. "I think the Title IX legislation, you could say is the most impactful piece of information in the 20th century," Sharp said. "And I know the Civil Rights piece was really huge, but you impacted half our population. With Title IX, you gave opportunities across the board to women. And it was really an amazing time to watch the growth in sports." A 2003 inductee, Sharp joined 2008 Hall of Famer Debbie Ryan and a pair of recent inductees in Debbie Antonelli and Carol Stiff looking at the 50th anniversary of the landmark legislation. Stiff, a basketball player/coach turned TV executive, called Title IX priceless. "There's a lot of battles, but we're not fighting them," said Ryan, who coached Virginia to three straight Final Fours. "And that's one of the problems, I think because of the money that's come into the game, it becomes harder for a coach to kind of put themselves out there. And I think even though they know who's going to win, they just don't do it as much." Sharp and Ryan both worked their way through the nascent days of Title IX to the heights of women's basketball.
