One more game. That’s all that was left in the league season for Arizona.
All the Wildcats had to do Sunday was beat Cal — the last-place team in the Pac-12 — to sweep the weekend, possibly secure the No. 3 seed in the Pac-12 Tournament, possibly move into the Top 10 nationally, cap off an incredible regular season and send off the five seniors on a high note.
It seemed simple enough, but it didn’t work out that way.
The No. 13 Wildcats (23-6, 12-6 Pac-12) dug themselves into a big hole early, rallied back to take the lead, but then let Cal score the winning points on a rebound off a missed free throw.
UA had one last chance to win, but Aari McDonald missed an off-balance jumper, giving the Golden Bears (11-18, 3-15) a 55-54 win in front of 6,705 fans at McKale Center.
Aari McDonald and UA have had plenty to be excited about during a regular season that ends with the Wildcats boasting a 23-6 record.
The Wildcats have locked up the fourth seed in the Pac-12 tournament and will play the winner of No. 5-seeded ASU vs. No. 12 seed Cal at 12:30 p.m. Friday in Las Vegas. If they win that matchup, they would most likely play No. 1-seeded Oregon on Saturday night in the semifinals, provided the Ducks win their quarterfinal game.
It’s been an odd week-plus for Arizona, which lost to Colorado and Cal but in between topped No. 4-ranked Stanford in overtime Friday night.
This wasn’t lost on UA coach Adia Barnes.
“It’s a devastating loss for us,” Barnes said. “Not devastating in the sense that we won’t play anymore basketball, devastating because it took away the great thing we did on Friday negates everything.
“I mean, we lost against two of the teams in the bottom of the Pac-12. All the credit in the world to Cal — they came out more hungry. They came out more ready. They came out with way more fire. And we didn’t.
“I’m just so disappointed because we always have these opportunities to make big jumps. We can’t, you know, we don’t show that same emotion. We wanted the Stanford game we played today like we didn’t want to. You can’t be that inconsistent.”
The Wildcats held a 54-53 lead with 16 seconds left and Cal’s CJ West at the line shooting two – and she missed both.
However, Arizona didn’t box out, allowing Jaelyn Brown to grab the rebound and get the putback to give Cal the lead.
Arizona called a timeout to set up a play with 14 seconds left. The ball was in McDonald’s hands — just what the Wildcats wanted. However, she couldn’t make it back-to-back gamer winners after Friday’s night’s big shot against Stanford in overtime.
McDonald extended her scoring in double figures streak to 64 games — the longest active streak in the nation — by leading all Wildcats with 17 points. She also had four rebounds and one steal.
Arizona’s Amari Carter runs to check on Sam Thomas as Thomas walks back to the bench with a bloody nose during UA’s surprising loss to last-place Cal on Sunday.
The Wildcats had a sluggish start to the game as the shots weren’t falling and their usual swarming defense struggled. UA was down 16-10 after one quarter and midway through the second.
After clawing back to within four points at the half, 30-26, the third quarter belonged to the Wildcats and Cate Reese, who hasn’t been playing at full strength for the last four games.
Reese found her touch scoring eight of the Wildcats’ 17 points in that frame. She hit outside and inside on midrange and turnaround jumpers.
She picked up her eight double-double of the season with 14 points and 10 rebounds.
“She was stepping up, especially in the third quarter,” Dominique McBryde said. “She had key rebounds … she came out great during that second half and got her rhythm back. Proud to have her back and hopefully she can keep that momentum going.”
McBryde chipped in with 12 points, grabbed four defensive rebounds and three steals.
Sam Thomas, who left the game in the second quarter with a bloody nose and returned to the court a few minutes later, swatted three balls — one into the stands — and grabbed two steals.
Arizona guard Helena Pueyo (13) breaks through a double team by California guard Cailyn Crocker (2) and California guard Jazlen Green (10) during Arizona's 55-54 loss to California at McKale Center in Tucson, Ariz., on March 1, 2020.
McBryde said this was a hard loss “probably one of worst performances of the season, if not the worst.”
The Wildcats just didn’t dig deep enough for this win.
“I think maybe just expecting that it’ll come, just flip the switch,” McBryde said. “I think we were more focused maybe on the (Senior Day) celebration after rather than what we needed to accomplish.”
It’s back to work for the Wildcats. Barnes said they will be working on basics like boxing out on free throws and not fouling 3-pointer or jump shots – just cutting down on the mental mistakes.
“I told them this hurts things. It’s not devastating because we have more basketball, but we had control of our own destiny. And we could have been in a very, very good situation and this made us take a step back. And that’s the reality of it,” Barnes said.
Rim shots
- There was a familiar face on Cal women’s basketball bench — former UA assistant coach April Phillips, who fills the same role at Cal. The last time Phillips was in McKale coaching was for the WNIT title game last spring.
- Great defense runs in the family. On Sunday, Sam Thomas’ older sister, Bailey — who plays at UNLV — was named Mountain West Defensive Player of the Year.
- The Wildcats had 11 turnovers in the first half — they typically turn the ball over 13 times for the entire game.
- Former Wildcats JaLea Bennett, Lindsey Malecha and Eugenie Simonet-Keller came back to walk onto the court with senior Lucia Alonso.
