LAS VEGAS — Heading back to Tucson on Sunday morning, Arizona must’ve felt pretty good about the state of the program.
While losses hurt and the Wildcats didn’t make it to the finals of the Pac-12 Tournament after falling 88-70 to top-seeded Oregon on Saturday, UA added to its historic season with a strong showing in Las Vegas.
For the first time since the league moved to 12 teams, the Wildcats had a bye in the first round. For the first time in nine years they made it to the semifinals. They won 24 games for the first time in 16 years.
Individually, Cate Reese got the touch back on her shot and played with aggressiveness. She shot 19 for 26 (73%) from the field over two games — tied for the second-best mark ever in the Pac-12 Tournament.
She is one of only three players who have scored 30 points in the event. Only one other Wildcat has scored 30 in a Pac-12 Tournament game — teammate Aari McDonald, who has done so twice, both against Oregon and with 34 points both time.
All-American Sabrina Ionescu, right, and the Ducks were just too good in beating UA three times this year. But the Wildcats played Oregon tough twice, and Aari McDonald, left, scored 34 in the Pac-12 Tournament.
Sam Thomas’ main defensive assignment Saturday was Oregon’s Satou Sabally — one of the most versatile forwards in the nation, who is predicted to go in the top five in the WNBA draft. Sabally averages 16.9 points per game and Thomas shut her down — holding her to nine points and just 2 of 9 from the field. Sabally had only been held in single digits two times in Pac-12 play. Thomas also held her to three rebounds — Sabally averages 7.1.
UA avenged its regular season-ending loss to Cal by crushing the Golden Bears 86-73 in the quarterfinals. The win most likely secured a host position at McKale Center for the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament. The official announcement comes on Selection Monday on March 16.
And, the Wildcats showed how far they’ve come in the last month of the season. After being routed by No. 3 Oregon in Eugene by 33 on Feb. 7, Saturday’s loss was much tighter.
“Oregon is one of the best teams in the country with so many offensive weapons, and just really hard to match up with,” Arizona coach Adia Barnes said. “You play a zone, they have shooters; you play man-to-man, they get you in rotation. They’re a really good team with a potential to win a championship or go very, very far in the (NCAA) tournament. I’d be shocked if they don’t go to the Final Four.
“For us, of course, we wanted to win. We wanted an upset. We knew we would have to really play, bring our ‘A’ game. But I’m not disappointed, we were close at times, but a lot of the small mistakes — they don’t win games against the top three teams in the country, they win games against the top 20. It is a learning lesson for us. We see where the bar is set — really high. We see where we’re going to be in the near future and what it takes to get there.”
Oregon has won 19 consecutive games in dominating fashion, including an 89-56 rout of Stanford on Sunday in the Pac-12 title game.
Saturday night the Ducks owned the glass, out-rebounding the Wildcats 39-22, including 25-7 on the offensive boards. All season long, this has been Arizona’s biggest flaw. For the last few months of the season, Barnes has put an emphasis in practice on boxing out in practice. Yet, UA is still not consistent in this area and it is one of the skills they will spend the next two weeks leading up to the NCAAs trying to fix.
Arizona’s Dominique McBryde drives around Oregon’s Sabrina Ionescu during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in the semifinal round of the Pac-12 women’s tournament Saturday, March 7, 2020, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Barnes — who switched it up and played a few styles of defense — said it is very hard for UA to grab defensive rebounds when it is playing zone.
“Things that hurt: Offensive rebounds that Sabrina (Ionescu) got in the first half (five),” Barnes said. “The easy put-backs. Those were easy six, eight points that those are deflating. And those are tough, because you’re locking down. At one point we were on defense for a minute and 20 seconds, because of offensive rebounds. Those are the mistakes that can’t happen in these type of games.”
Arizona can’t afford letdowns or expect to play from behind in the NCAA Tournament.
The one constant for the Wildcats across both games in Las Vegas is that they had the March mindset. To date over the last year they’ve gone 8-2 in the postseason. They don’t care who their competition is, they are locked in.
“We’re a great team. We just have to be able to compete for 40 minutes and play how we know how to play and we can compete with anybody,” Amari Carter said.
Barnes, who manages the season and her teams to peak at this time, knows exactly what they need to focus on.
“Rebounding is a focal point — just getting up shots,” Barnes said. “I think it is a positive — it is a lot of time. I think it’s a time to celebrate each other.
“It is a fun time. I think the only bad thing for the players is they don’t get a spring break, but in this program, we’re not going to have a spring break anymore from now on, we’ll plan for that.
“We can get a lot better in two weeks and we’ll be better. We’ll put in different types of defenses and work on the stuff we do well, so still working on our bright spots and we will be improved.”
Rim shots
• UA T-shirts sold out the first day of the Pac-12 Tournament and they never received another shipment. The only other team that sold out was Oregon.
• It is Vegas, so we must share the line for the semifinal game at the sports book. It was Oregon winning by 14ƒ and with an 18-point win, the No. 3-ranked Ducks covered.
