Adia Barnes was not happy Saturday night.
No. 7-ranked Arizona fell 68-66 in overtime to Oregon in a game that the Wildcats led by 13 points heading into the final quarter. The Ducks went on to outscore Arizona 18-5 in the final frame, forcing overtime, then won on Endyia Rogers’ buzzer-beater in OT.
Following the game, Barnes said she thought her team played well but got “homered” with foul calls. The Ducks attempted 26 free throws, making 22 of them. The visiting Wildcats went 5 for 10 from the line.
“There were a lot of questionable calls that did not go our way,” Barnes said. “I think we are a pretty aggressive team and a lot of those calls were momentum shifters. … I’ve never had a game where we shot 5 of 10 from the line with some of the most athletic guards in the country and played a team that shot 26. It is tough to play that way.
“It is what it is. We are going to get homered in different places and that was clearly going on today.”
Arizona forwards Lauren Ware and Ariyah Copeland both fouled out, and the rest of the Wildcats’ posts played with foul trouble. Barnes said it affected how they played on both ends of the court. The UA was not as aggressive on defense, Barnes said; and offensively, “you’re getting dislodged and arm-barred the whole game.”
“We had to be a little smarter knowing the game has been called really tight. But it’s just hard. There was a lot of inconsistency, and it was just tough for us to play, but not an excuse at all,” Barnes said.
The UA coaches probably weren’t any happier after watching the film of the final play. Rogers was standing out of bounds along the baseline as the Ducks attempted to win the game. She stepped back on the court to catch the deflected ball, then delivered the game-winning shot. The rules state that when a player goes voluntarily out of bounds and is then the first one to touch the ball upon returning, the play should be blown dead and the opposing team awarded the ball.
Had the rule been enforced, Rogers’ basket would not have counted and the Wildcats would have gotten the ball back.
Unsportsmanlike conduct
One Arizona player tweeted on Sunday that Barnes “had every reason to defend herself” following purported exchanges between the UA coach and Oregon coach Kelly Graves during and after the game.
Saturday’s television broadcast did not show the coaches’ exchanges, and neither mentioned it in their postgame news conferences. However, UA point guard Shaina Pellington tweeted on Sunday that Barnes “was cussed at and called out … in the most vulgar ways the entire game by Kelly. We could hear it on the floor while playing, in the most hostile environment. He needs to be held accountable. Simple.”
Barnes, meanwhile, tweeted out an apology late Saturday for “being out of character and letting my emotions get the best of me.”
One win, one loss
Typically, a road split with the Oregon schools is seen as a good thing. However, given the way Saturday’s game ended, it didn’t quite feel that way.
Despite the foul trouble, Arizona was dominating Oregon through three quarters. Shots were falling at a 50% clip. On defense, the Wildcats they were disrupting the Ducks, who only hit 11 of 35 attempts in the first three quarters. They were forcing travels and bad passes, altering shots and getting steals.
Things then flipped. Sedona Prince, who was limited to two first-half points, scored 12 in the final 15 minutes of the game. She also found her way into many plays on defense, as Oregon packed the paint and didn’t let the Wildcats find seams for layups or even putbacks.
However, it’s worth noting how hard it typically is to win in Eugene. Last year’s 79-59 win over the Ducks was Barnes’ first — and so far only — victory at Matthew Knight Arena.
Rooting for the Ducks?
Arizona’s loss to Oregon will look a lot better if the can Ducks beat No. 10 UConn Monday in a rare January nonconference game. The Ducks (9-5, 2-1 Pac-12) have a NET rating of 17th heading into the game, which will air on ESPN2. That rating would certainly go up with a victory.
Arizona is 12-2 overall and 2-2 in Pac-12 play this season; given the nature of both losses and how much basketball is left, neither defeat is likely to hurt the Wildcats in March. Arizona is 12th in NET rating, with home games against Utah and Colorado up next.
This week, Barnes said she will focus on the little things that the Wildcats can control: limiting turnovers, “making passes on balance, not forcing a shot down the stretch,” she said.
“The controllable things are losing a 17-point lead. There were times we could have put Oregon away and we know we can score at any time against them, and we weren’t able to score the ball,” she said. “We know we had stops, but we weren’t able to score times and we let them go on runs. And I think those are things that we have to get better at, but we will get better.”
The highlights
Pellington may have had the best weekend of any Wildcat, scoring 26 total points and having the biggest moment: A game-winning shot over Oregon State on Thursday night.
There was no doubt that Pellington would be taking the final shot, a mid-range jumper.
“It was a high-ball screen in the middle of the paint,” Pellington said. “It was something that was working for both Bendu (Yeaney) and me throughout the entire course of the game. To have a one-on-one cover with their post player in the middle of the key. We had a lot of success doing that; that was a play call. Middle ball screen in the middle of the floor, at five seconds, and attack and get whatever shot I could.”
Yeaney played well in a return to her home state, scoring 29 points over two games. The Portland native had 25 family members and friends in Corvallis and 50 in Eugene. She hit a 3 with 13 seconds left in overtime Saturday that tied the game at 66.
“I love being back home and love having my family see me play,” Yeaney said.
