Scouting report: No. 17 Arizona Wildcats vs. Cal Golden Bears

Probable starters

ARIZONA G Shaina Pellington (5-8 senior)

G/F Jade Loville (5-11 senior)

F Esmery Martinez (6-2 senior)

F Lauren Fields (5-9 senior)

F Cate Reese (6-2 senior)

CAL

G Kemery Martin (6-0 sophomore)

G Jayda Curry (5-6 sophomore)

G Leilani McIntosh (5-5 senior)

F Peanut Tuitele (6-1 senior)

F Evelien Lutje Schipholt (6-2 senior)

History of matchup

UA is 35-38 against Cal. Arizona coach Adia Barnes is 5-5 against Cal in her coaching tenure. Last time this matchup was played in Tucson was January of 2021, when Arizona dominated Cal 69-33. That was also a rebound game after No. 6 Arizona suffered a tough loss against Stanford.

Trinity Baptiste led all scorers with an efficient 17 points (8 of 9 from the field), two steals and four rebounds. Cate Reese had 14 points (7 of 9). Aari McDonald had 12 points (5 of 10), picked six steals and dished eight assists. Sam Thomas added four steals as the Wildcats had 16 steals and scored 26 points off Cal’s turnovers.

Key players

CAL — Jayda Curry

Curry is always the key player for Cal. She is averaging 14.1 points per game, leading all Golden Bears. On Friday, in Cal’s third win in Pac-12 play over ASU, 72-61, she put up 21 points and dished four assists. Curry is averaging 4.6 assists over the last eight games, 3.7 in all games this season. She has already surpassed her total assists during her freshman year (64) with 88 to date. She is so unselfish that in the second half of the ASU game, her coaches told her to shoot more and not distribute as much. Curry put up eight points in the third quarter.

ARIZONA — Cate Reese

Reese went off for 33 points in the double-overtime win at USC but scored just 10 in Thursday’s loss to Stanford. When Reese gets upset about something, she usually has a big outing. She really wasn’t happy with that loss to the Cardinal, so expect her to have a bounce-back game against Cal. In 2020, Cal beat Arizona in the last game of the season by one point — coming off the Wildcats’ upset of Stanford a few days before. When Arizona faced Cal in the Pac-12 Tournament less than a week later, Reese exploded for 30 points. Against Oregon in 2021, she heard some talk pregame that she couldn’t shoot. She scored 25 points in that one.

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Sidelines

The Commish

Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff was all alone, sitting at a high-top table near the UA’s fueling station at McKale Center, drinking a bottle of water, before Thursday’s game vs. Stanford. Before he took his seat courtside next the ESPN broadcasters and UA athletic director Dave Heeke, Kliavkoff said he was excited that the game was getting a national spotlight.

“It’s really important for us. We have the best women’s basketball conference in the country and we love when the entire country can watch it,” he said. “Women’s basketball, I think, is our fastest-growing sport, (is) really underrepresented and should be a much bigger sport than it is. I’m doing everything I can to make sure that happens.”

In the current media deal, only three Pac-12 women’s basketball games were televised on ESPN this season. Meanwhile, other leagues have games on ESPN every Sunday. When the media-rights deal was brokered 11 years ago, women’s basketball was just thrown in and not negotiated separately.

At the time, the Pac-12 featured Nneka and Chiney Ogwumike (Stanford), Rebekah Gardner (UCLA), Ify Ibekwe (UA), Davellyn Whyte (UA), Kayla Pederson (Stanford) and Layshia Clarendon (Cal), among others.

Since joining the league, Kliavkoff has repeatedly said that he values women’s basketball and that it will be prominent in the next deal.

When that deal gets done and what exactly it looks like, he wouldn’t say. Although he did say one of his goals is “to get really broad exposure and visibility for women’s basketball games.”

Heavyweight fightYou might have noticed a scratch and blood running down Jade Loville’s face during the USC game last Sunday. Loville didn’t even notice until she got in the huddle and Reese was looking at her “kind of crazy.”

“I’m like, ‘Why is she looking at me like that?’ She’s like, ‘Here.’ I watched the livestream back, and she was dabbing my face. Shout out Cate Reese for having my back,” Loville said. “It is what it is. It was a physical game. It was fun to play in for sure. But I’m definitely putting some Neosporin on.”

Pink gameSunday is UA’s “Breast Cancer Awareness” game. The Wildcats are asking fans to wear pink. They will be wearing new pink Nike Kay Yows, along with a black warmup tee with “Power of One” in pink and pink headbands.

Fun facts

Arizona: During the Barnes coaching era, if it’s Super Bowl Sunday, you usually can find the Wildcats playing at home that day. … Martinez was listed as one of the most impactful transfers in the Pac-12 by writer Michelle Smith.

Cal: Two of the three league games the Golden Bears have won were against ASU, which hasn’t won any. … Mia Mastrov’s grandfather, Bert, played basketball for Cal and Hall of Fame coach Pete Newell.

Numbers game

4 — Current and former Pac-12/WNBA players at Thursday’s game. From Arizona, McDonald (Atlanta Dream) and Thomas (signed a training-camp contract with Phoenix Mercury). From Stanford, Erica McCall (Indiana Fever and three others). And from Oregon State, Sydney Wiese (signed a training-camp contract with Mercury).

3 — UA’s attendance for Thursday’s game was 9,868. That was the largest turnout for a game this season and No. 3 on UA’s all-time list for regular-season games. In the top spot is last year’s Oregon game (10,413) and in second is ASU in 2020 (10,106). The top game of all time is the sellout for the WNIT championship game against Northwestern (14.644).

5 — The Pac-12 has five teams in the top 30 in the NET rankings after Friday night’s games. They are: Stanford (4), Utah (6), Colorado (21), USC (26), UCLA (27) and UA (28). Washington is the only other team in the top 50 at 48.