Arizona Wildcats forward Cate Reese (25) evades UCLA Bruins guard Lindsey Corsaro (4) as she moves the ball up court during a game at the McKale Center, on Dec. 4, 2020.

 Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star

It was billed as the best of the best, and it didn’t disappoint.

There were collapsing defenses, timely blocks and deflections and big-time shots β€” everything you need for a game that involves No. 7 Arizona and No. 9 UCLA.

In the last two minutes, when it turned to Aari McDonald’s time to step up, she did β€” with a steal, running in for a put back on a missed three and free throws.

Yet, the Bruins just kept coming.

On the last play of the game, it was the swarming defense that Arizona has become known for that forced an errant shot that gave the Wildcats a 68-65 win at McKale Center on Friday night.

Arizona improves to 2-0 overall and 1-0 in Pac-12, while UCLA drops to 1-1, 0-1.

It was an historic win for the Wildcats. UA coach Aida Barnes picked up win No. 70. Sam Thomas played in her 100th career game.

Arizona Wildcats forward Trinity Baptiste (0) is blocked on her way to the basket by UCLA Bruins guard Natalie Chou (23) during a game at the McKale Center, on Dec. 4, 2020.

It was the first time Arizona has been ranked in the Top 10 and beat another Top 10 team at McKale.

The Wildcats have now beaten UCLA in back-to-back games for the first time since 2005.

It sure wasn’t easy.

Trinity Baptiste, who collected her first double-double as a Wildcat with 18 points and 11 rebounds said, β€œIt was a dog fight.”

While neither team was in mid-season form, Baptiste, Bendu Yeaney and McDonald seemed to be everywhere they were needed.

McDonald finished with 17 points, two steals, five assists and four rebounds. Yeaney had 11 points, four assists, one block, one steal and seven rebounds.

The Wildcats went into the fourth quarter with a four-point lead 48-44, after holding the Bruins to six points on 1-for-18 shooting.

Arizona Wildcats guard Aari McDonald (2) tries to pass the ball overtop a group of UCLA Bruins during a game at the McKale Center, on Dec. 4, 2020.

With less than two minutesΒ left in the game, Arizona took a 64-56 lead on Baptiste’s second 3 of the evening and it looked like the game was in hand. Sam Thomas picked up a block on the next defensive possession. However, the Bruins started chipping away and fouling to extend the game.

Arizona hit only 4 of 8 free throws during the stretch, and was just 5 of 11 in the fourth quarter.

Barnes said that it was β€œan ugly win,” but she’ll take it. Her first thought after the victory β€” besides being happy β€” was that she has 21 more like this, as UA is playing 22 league games this season.

The Bruins went on a quick 8-0 run in the second quarter to take a 27-16 lead. Yeaney ended the scoring drought with the Wildcats’ first 3-pointer of the game to close the gap 27-19 with 5:04 left in the half.

The Wildcats other 3 came from Baptiste to close the gap to six going into the intermission down, as UCLA led 38-32.

Rim shots

On the eve of the Wildcats' first Pac-12 game of the season, they received videos from four former teammates with some special messages to give them a little more motivation for this year. Tee Tee Starks kicked it off from Connecticut where she is a grad assistant for UConn, Lucia Alonso was in Spain (with a tip to box out on free throws), Amari Carter was in England and Dominique McBryde wrapped it up from Hungary.

Santa Clara County’s emergency directive earlier in the week forced No. 2 Stanford to move to Las Vegas for the foreseeable future. They will play UNLV on Saturday and Washington on Sunday.

Washington State postponed its game Sunday at Cal and Tuesday against Stanford, as the Cougars do not have the league minimum seven players needed to play a game after testing and contact tracing. They will try to reschedule the games in the season.

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