Probable starters
ARIZONAG 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)
ASU
G Treasure Hunt (6-2 junior)
G Tyi Skinner (5-5 junior)
G Jaddan Simmons (5-9 junior)
C Kayla Mokwuah (6-4 senior)
G Sydney Erikstrup (6-1 junior)
History of matchup
Arizona is 38-63 against its rival. UA coach Adia Barnes has a .500 record (7-7) over the last seven years, with five of those losses coming in Tempe.
Arizona tipped off the Pac-12 season defeating Arizona State 84-66 at home. The Wildcats went on a 6-0 run to take a 26-12 first-quarter lead. Esmery Martinez paced the Wildcats with 21 points (9 of 14), 10 rebounds, one assist and one steal. Three other Wildcats scored in double figures: Shaina Pellington (14), Cate Reese (13) and Jade Loville (12).
Key players
ASU – Tyi Skinner
After missing last weekend’s games, Skinner will be itching to pick up where she left off. She put up back-to-back big scoring nights against Oregon (20) and Oregon State (22) despite playing through some ankle issues. While she might not play the full 36 minutes she averages, anytime Skinner is on the floor, the speedy guard is going to make something happen. She scored 26 points and had three steals the last time these two teams met.
Arizona – Jade Loville
Loville returns to her former stomping grounds, Desert Financial Arena. This is the exact spot where she torched the Wildcats last season, scoring 27 points in that rivalry game. Loville is coming off a 17-point performance, including 10 in the fourth quarter, against Utah.
She said it
“We know that Tyi Skinner (had a big game) here at home. We’re just focused as a team to kind of guard her together. That’s what I kept telling the girls — it’s going to be a team effort trying to stop her, not just one person. We’re motivated to guard better.
“We need to be patient with our offense. Coach Adia has talked about when we reverse the ball — when the ball touches the paint and we get more passes in — offensively, we just shoot better, we score better. Not taking the first shot that we get. Not taking guarded shots.
“We’ve really been stressing pushing the tempo. We’re not sure how many players Arizona State is going to have healthy. I told the team this is who I think that they’ll start if they would have everybody healthy. But again, just be prepared for anything. Maybe (they’ll) play four guards, maybe (they’ll) play all guards – that maybe all they have available.
“It’s really about us anyway. Improving in the areas that we need to improve on. ... It’s perfect timing with that because it doesn’t matter who Arizona State is going to roll out there. It matters what we do and if we play how we’re supposed to play and guard how we’re supposed to guard.”
— UA assistant coach Ashley Davis, who scouted ASU
Arizona State guard Tyi Skinner waits on the court after picking up her fifth foul of the night as the Arizona crowd celebrates late in the quarter of their Pac 12 game at McKale Center on Dec. 29, 2022.
Sidelines
Running for office: Former UA standout Joy Hollingsworth is running for city council in Seattle. She announced her candidacy on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in a nod to her grandmother, Dorothy, who was an educator and civil-rights advocate.
Another retirement: This week, former WNBA star Maya Moore officially retired. Moore, who collected four championships with the Minnesota Lynx, was a two-time NCAA champ with UConn and won numerous individual awards, took a hiatus from the game in 2019 to focus on advocacy for criminal-justice reform. Barnes called Moore “an amazing human being.”
“If you talk to her for five minutes, you walk out like, ‘I love her.’ She’s just a good person,” Barnes said. “I think that she could have stayed in (the WNBA) and dominated a lot longer. But the fact that she’s fulfilled and willing to walk away at whatever cost, that’s pretty amazing because not all people are like that. I love Maya Moore.”
Team bonding: Last week the Sun Devils forfeited two games because they didn’t have seven bodies to play. Yet on Sunday — the day they were scheduled to play Colorado — they were at an escape room in the Phoenix area. ASU even posted a photo of the team on its Facebook page of that team-bonding activity. During this week’s news conference, ASU coach Natasha Adair spent a lot of time saying that the team used that time to build culture and chemistry. Facebook commenters were mixed on whether the post and the activity were appropriate.
Fun facts
Arizona: Reese always takes a backwards half-court shot after shootaround. She has made it three times, and Arizona has won all those games (Baylor, UT Arlington and Oregon State). … Martinez has won the gold jersey more than any other Wildcat (five times). The Wildcat who makes the most winning plays during practices and games gets to wear the jersey and select the meals that week.
ASU: The Sun Devils are averaging 2.9 blocks per game, same as the Wildcats … Jaddan Simmons has started in every game of her ASU career so far (68).
Numbers game
18 – With Arizona’s win against Oregon at home on Jan. 8, Barnes has won 18 games against teams ranked in the Top 25.
1 – Arizona is first in attendance in the Pac-12 with an average of 7,352 fans per game. That puts the Wildcats in eighth place in the nation. Last year they finished sixth nationally.
15.4 – The Wildcats are averaging 15.4 assists per game. Last year’s team averaged 14.1.
