As Arizona freshman Tara Manumaleuga prepares for a second top-5 matchup in three days — this one against No. 2 Oregon — her thoughts are more than 8,500 miles away in her homeland of Australia.
Wildfires have ravaged her home country. Manumaleuga, a guard, has been FaceTiming with her parents every day for updates.
“Being so far away …it’s heavy on my mind,” Manumaleuga said. “It’s totally devastating.”
While the fires have been heavily focused in the southeast part of the country, every state has been hit — including Queensland, where Manumaleuga’s family resides. Manumaleuga said her family and friends are safe for now, although some who live in New South Wales have been forced to evacuate.
The fires are close to Manumaleuga’s family home, as well. “Probably an hour drive from my house,” she said. “It’s spreading fast.”
So far, 17.9 million acres have burned and 27 people have died. Experts say half a billion animals have been affected — and some species may have been totally wiped out. They won’t know until all the fires have stopped.
Manumaleuga said that she’s “doing fine at the moment” despite the added stress.
It helps to have her teammates and coaches supporting her.
“This past week they’ve been helping more consistently,” she said. “They ask me every day how my family and friends are. I think it’s really special that they are thinking of me. I am lucky to have teammates like that — they are my best friends. They know when I’m having a tough day and when I am thinking about it. There are still a couple months of summer (in the southern hemisphere) and things can get worse, so keeping an eye on me is really important, too.”
Is Arizona road trip becoming one of the hardest in the Pac-12?
Friday night, ASU defeated No. 2 Oregon and No. 18 Arizona took No. 3 Oregon State to the brink before losing 63-61.
The Arizona swing is developing into one the toughest ones in the Pac-12 Conference — exactly when UA coach Adia Barnes and ASU coach Charli Turner Thorne want.
After the Wildcats defeated the Sun Devils in Tempe last month, Barnes shared a conversation that she and the Sun Devils coach had a few years ago.
“We want Arizona to be somewhere where it’s like, ‘uhh’ when the Pac-12 teams come to Arizona, you’re going to play against a really good defensive team in at ASU, and you’re going to play against a really good defensive team at Arizona,” Barnes said. “It’s not like that a lot of places on road. When you go to Oregon, you have to play against Oregon, Oregon State — it’s a beast. We want our state to be like that.”
Friday night’s game had a March feel, thanks in part to the 5,694 screaming fans who packed McKale Center.
Mikayla Pivec hit an off-balance shot with 1.4 seconds left, and the Beavers held on for a two-point win. Arizona had a chance to win the game, but Slocum blocked Aari McDonald’s 3-point attempt at the buzzer.
The loss was Arizona’s first at McKale Center in more than 10 months. The last time the UA fell at home, Oregon State beat the Wildcats 65-60 in two overtimes last March 3.
Pivec led all scorers with 17 points. Destiny Slocum finished with 13, Taylor Jones had 12 and Kat Tudor had 10 — including a four-point play at the end of the third quarter that increased the Beavers’ lead to 49-44.
Cate Reese and McDonald led the Wildcats with 15 points apiece, and Reese added 11 rebounds for her sixth double-double of the season and the 13th of her career.
What makes a Top 5 team?
Arizona’s Cate Reese (25) and Oregon State’s Taylor Jones fight for the ball in the Beavers’ last-second win over the Wildcats on Friday night.
Sunday afternoon’s game is Arizona’s third straight against a Top 10 team. The gantlet began last Sunday, when Arizona battled with No. 10 UCLA before losing in Westwood. The Wildcats faced No. 3 Oregon State on Friday, and will take on the second-ranked Ducks on Sunday.
What makes for a Top 10 — or even Top 5 — opponent? Barnes said that a Top 5 is a really good team with “stars, and then they have really good role players that are better than the average role players.”
“Look at Oregon State,” she said. “Mikayla Pivec is very good — a complete player and she changes a lot of the game. Destiny (Slocum) is a very good point guard, who is a good outside shooter, good facilitator, and then you have Aleah Goodman who is a really good shooter then you have some really good young post players, but you have a ton of shooting on the outside. And you have a really smart team takes care of the basketball and really plays well in their system.
“Look at Oregon — they have four or five players that can shoot above 40% from three. It’s really hard to guard teams like that because you can’t double inside.
“(Top 5 teams also) make you pay for every mistake. I think top teams don’t have one player you have to stop; they have multiple players. They may have one post, one guard, one shooter — it’s just they have so many more weapons, and that’s the difference.”
While the Wildcats showed they can hang with the best of them, the difference between winning and losing those games is very small.
It may come down to the fact that the Oregon States have been there before. OSU coach Scott Rueck said that his team is comfortable in close games.
“All those lessons have led to poise and composure down the stretch and a belief that we will come through in those moments,” he said.
Or it could just be a matter of putting all the ingredients together.
“I think we showed some great stuff and we showed fight — my team doesn’t quit, and I love that,” Barnes said. “I don’t care about a couple of shots. I care about the little mental mistakes. … Those are the mistakes we can’t do to beat No. 3 in the country. We can do that and beat an unranked team. We can’t do that to play or beat the best — we have to be extremely disciplined.”
“There was a time they scored three times in a row — we didn’t score. They went on those little 8-0, 7-0 runs. Those are things we can’t have. … We can’t allow that against No. 3 in the country and win, but we’re right there. I mean, we’re a program that wasn’t considered years ago against the top programs — we would have been killed.
“We are right there, we play within one basket. I’m proud of us. Because we just have so much more to grow, and we’re getting better.”
