Undefeated no more: Arizona women's basketball falls to Southern U at home

Arizona women’s basketball’s six-game undefeated streak came to an end at the hands of a Southern University team not used to winning this season.

Southern, 1-5 coming into Wednesday’s matchup at McKale Center, delivered a 63-57 blow to the now 6-1 Wildcats, who had 24 turnovers that led to 25 points.

This was Arizona’s second time facing Southern. The Wildcats beat the Jaguars 56-45 in their only other matchup on Dec. 11, 2014.

Southern clogged multiple areas of the floor, keeping Arizona on edge the entire night. The Jaguars scored 35 bench points compared to Arizona’s 10 as Southern saw every player but one score in the game.

“I think that’s the best way to put it right now, is frustrated," Arizona head coach Becky Burke said in a post-game press conference. "This is the first team we’ve seen with size, athleticism, along with some pretty good skill … I just don’t think we handled the physicality well. I don’t think we handled the pressure well. We turned it over 24 times. I thought we got bullied. We had no edge to us and competitiveness, in my opinion.”

Due to Southern’s size and height, Arizona had a disadvantage on many of its scoring attempts. Southern, with four players over 6 feet tall, controlled the defensive end, while Arizona’s bigs struggled to protect the ball.

Southern went on a 6-0 run in the beginning minutes, setting the tone early.

Southern has faced a tough schedule this year, suffering losses to ranked teams Iowa, Iowa State, Mississippi and UCLA. Their other defeat was to Washington in Seattle last week.

Arizona came in shooting 49.7% as a team this season and shared the ball with each other more than its opponents, collecting 106-73 assists. Against Southern, the Wildcats put up the least points they have this season, shooting 41.2% from the field.

“There were some bright spots, right," Burke said. "You’re down and then we come out at halftime and I think we punched them in the face in the second half. But ultimately, like, I measure wins and losses and I measure, like, total body of work within a game and we weren’t physical enough. We weren’t sharp enough.”

Graduate student and guard Mickayla Perdue led the way for Arizona with 17 points on 7-for-16 shooting for the night, including two 3-pointers. Perdue also put up three rebounds but caused four turnovers.

"We got to contain the ball so we don’t need the big gaps (in defensive coverage) you know?," Perdue said after the game. "So until we do that, we’re going to get the same outcome we did today.” 

Two words to describe this game: Physicality and turnovers.

In the first quarter, Arizona grew tired of seeing Southern get by with easy shots and possessions, leading to a 7-3 Wildcats scoring run that cut the lead 13-11. But Arizona played messy and physical in the first period, collecting seven personal fouls, two being offensive. Southern led 16-11 heading into the second period, forcing nine Arizona turnovers.

“We were anticipating them being handsy … But we weren’t able to like, settle ourselves and we were very much rattled by that,” Nora Francois said. “I don’t know if there was an adjustment made.”

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Those early fouls forced Arizona to be careful with its physicality, which led to lost possessions. That helped Southern find multiple scoring opportunities from Arizona’s turnovers.

Just in the first half, the Jaguars converted on 13 points off of the Wildcats 14 errors. Southern shot 38% from the field, holding Arizona to 30% on 7-of-23 field goals. Perdue led the first half with 8 points but also collected three turnovers alongside teammate Noelani Cornfield.

Sumayah Sugapong got called for three fouls in the first half, scoring 2 points in 11 minutes of play. Arizona closed out the first half on a 9-0 scoring run, getting within 7 points of the 27-20 advantage.

“We were on our heels, we were weak with our dribble. I mean, you name it. They brought it and we did not respond by any stretch of the imagination … Haven’t seen our team look like that,” Burke said.

Perdue was the last to score before the half and the first to score coming out of it. The guard made 4 points in 30 seconds to get within one possession of the 27-24 score.

Arizona did what was expected, entering the second half with effort and poise. The Wildcats came all the way back and took the lead in the first three minutes of the third quarter when Sugapong scored a layup off a turnover, assisted by Mireia Jurado.

Arizona tapped into control of the score, responding to any shot Southern made with a layup of its own.

Cornfield tied the game for the fourth time at 37 before Arizona slipped, trailing Southern after the Jaguars shot back-to-back 3-pointers.

Arizona went in the final quarter down 47-42. If the Wildcats wanted to remain undefeated, they had to maintain possession and clean up mistakes to have control of the score. Cornfield gained her fourth foul with six minutes left in the game and Arizona trailing 56-47.

Soon after, the Wildcats went cold for over three minutes and had almost five minutes to make an 11-point comeback.

Arizona felt safe scoring in the paint, adding 24 points on the inside in the second half. As for Southern, the Jaguars were not intimidated by Arizona’s defense on the perimeter or in the paint, getting Southern guard D’Shantae Edwards to play defense as she later fouled out of the game, scoring no points.

Arizona was still down by 9 points with 2½ minutes left to play. Perdue found her way into the paint, scoring the basket and finding the opportunity for an and-1. Francois followed up on a second-chance shot, putting the Wildcats within 4 points of Southern’s 60-56 advantage.

But with too many missed shots down the stretch, Arizona turned over the ball once again, leading to both programs trading fouls to close the game. Ultimately, the Wildcats' efforts to come back came too late with early mistakes and missed opportunities to score.

“We needed to see that. We needed to feel that and one thing I do know about this team is that they watch the film and they really do try to make adjustments for next time,” Burke said.

Photos: Arizona takes a 63-57 loss to Southern University, women's college basketball