Tough, tenacious Cate Reese a consistent force for Wildcats

Arizona had a down-and-up weekend, finishing on a high note.

The eighth-ranked Wildcats beat ASU 62-58 on Sunday after falling to the Sun Devils 81-77 on Friday night. Both games were physical, with the hard-nosed Wildcats and Sun Devils battling on nearly every possession.

Cate Reese was a constant for the UA, which dropped from No. 6 to No. 8 in the AP rankings Monday. Reese put up 18 points in Friday’s loss in Tempe and 17 points in Sunday’s win in McKale Center before 8,480 fans. Reese is averaging 17 points per game in Pac-12 play this season. She has scored in double figures in every league game.

UA coach Adia Barnes says Reese’s toughness and tenacity is what separate her from others.

On Friday night, Reese went to work on the defensive end. She “walled up; put her hand straight up in the post to eat space,” Barnes said. At one point, Reese took an accidental elbow to the cheek and a technical foul was called. Reese walked off the court to have her cheek looked at by the trainer and test for a concussion, then returned right to the bench.

“You know what’s funny, this is how competitive and great Cate is — this is why I love her. Cate goes out, she’s in pain, tearing up, goes out. Sits for a few minutes. She comes back and I run a play for her, and she hit the 3,” Barnes said with a chuckle.

“(She) hadn’t warmed up, just was out in the back. That’s Cate. That’s what I love about her and that’s a separator for her, literally. Because I know how she is — the first play, she comes into the game like hadn’t even gone down once (on the other end of the court) and then hit a 3. It was funny. She’s just competitive and that’s why I love her.”

Not on our court

ASU’s Jade Loville was the star of Friday night’s win, scoring 27 points on 9-of-19 shooting while hitting 7 of 8 free throws. Teammate Taya Hanson chipped in with 19 points.

The Wildcats wouldn’t let them shine on Sunday. Hansen was held scoreless; Loville scored eight points.

UA’s Sam Thomas was the main defender on Loville on Sunday.

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“We were doing a lot of work early on Jade, not letting her catch it as much making her work really hard to catch,” Barnes said. “Just crowding her because at ASU on Friday, she had a ton of isolations where she kind of rocked us and she’s like a one on one and then she hit some really hard shots. We tried to crowd her from people around her and trap her in different situations.

“I thought it wore her down a little bit. And it just wasn’t her night. It was her night the other night. I think she just had to work harder and that’s what we want to do.”

The Wildcats increased their intensity in the second half. ASU hit five 3-pointers in the first half, but missed all seven attempts in the final 20 minutes.

What’s next?

As Arizona prepares for the trip to the Washington schools this weekend, they will be focused on the usual rebounding and free throws, but Barnes also is looking at other ways to improve — like when and where to be aggressive and how to press without giving up layups.

“There are certain situations where you can be aggressive, but you don’t have to go for a reach at half court,” Barnes said. “It may not be a foul, it may be a foul, but the action of doing it. You leave that up to chance and I don’t like that. So that’s lack of discipline to me. I think just not waiting to a second half to really be intentional about boxing out or fighting for the rebounds, doing that from the get-go.

“Not starting off slow. we can’t start off games at home and McKale with 9,000 people or 8,500 people and let the team go 5 for 8 and 3 for 3. That’s not the way teams can start off especially in our home. That tells me we’re not defending right. They got three wide-open 3s in the first quarter. And so that’s helping off the wrong area. That’s discipline and focus where we don’t have 100% right now, but we will get better. But there’s some specific areas that we have to improve on. … it’s our job to teach them and we’ll learn, we’ll be better.”

Rim shots

Maya Nnaji, a 5-star signee and McDonald’s All-American who is in UA’s Class of 2022, is featured in Slam magazine’s February/March edition.

Arizona’s Bendu Yeaney and Helena Pueyo have combined for 70 steals this season. Pueyo is averaging 1.91 per game, while Yeaney averages 1.73. Yeaney had three on Sunday.

The Wildcats celebrated Pueyo’s 21st birthday Sunday by having fans sing “Happy Birthday to You” after the game.