Heading into Friday night’s game against No. 12 Oregon State, the Arizona Wildcats were feeling loose.
It didn’t take long, however, until they ran into one of the Pac-12’s best players. Marie Gulich, Oregon State's 6-foot-5-inch star, scored 20 points and grabbed 12 rebounds as the Beavers defeated the Wildcats 65-40 at McKale Center.
Everywhere the Wildcats looked down low, they saw Gulich. Whether she was grabbing a ball as Marlee Kyles went up for a layup or clogging the lane, she was a force.
“She’s very tough and is such a force inside,” said UA coach Adia Barnes. “She is so efficient, was 10-for-12 (from the field). Although, she had to work for her shots. She was getting double-and-triple-teamed and had to kick it out.
“Tonight what hurt us was the little runs. We couldn’t get stops and scores and it ends up being a 25 point game. We have to hit shots and they were making us shoot contested 15 footers. Shooting 26 percent you are not going to win and beat a ranked team.”
OSU jumped ahead 5-0 before UA's Destiny Graham hit a three-pointer. Graham accounted for all UA’s points in the first quarter with nine. She led all Wildcats with 13 points and grabbed nine rebounds.
“I thought back to us playing last time and this week in practice it was Gulich in the paint and shoot it and be confident,” said Graham.
The Beavers scored 34 points in the paint and outrebounded the Wildcats 48-28.
“We switched up our defense a lot,” Arizona's Kat Wright said. “We played a lot of man-to-man, because we knew they had shooters and we had to contest shots.”
The Wildcats trailed 23-9 in the first quarter, which was too big of a deficit for the Wildcats to close. Arizona improved in the second half, and was only outscored by six points.
OSU, who is tied for third place in the Pac-12 with UCLA, improved to 22-6 overall and 13-4 in the Pac-12. UA fells to 6-22, 2-15. The Wildcats wrap up their regular season Sunday against No. 8 Oregon.
Rim Shots
• The Wildcats hosted a reception for fans before the game to share stories on how cancer has affected them. In warmups, the players wore black t-shirts with a blank pink space to finish the phrase: I Play 4. The Wildcats then filled in the blank with people they love: JaLea Bennett played for her grandma, Lindsey Malecha play for Aunt Mary, Marlee Kyles played for Loretta and Kiana Barkhoff played for all cancer survivors. Even Barnes sported pink tennis shoes.
