Three games, three times that Breya Cunningham showed that she is more than ready for this season.
She also just might be the Wildcat that her opponents have no solution for as she led her teammates to a 65-54 win over UC San Diego at LionTree Arena in San Diego on Sunday afternoon.
Cunningham started and finished her performance in dominant fashion. In the first quarter, she blocked a shot on the defensive end. On the very next offensive possession, she caught a pass from Jada Williams, took a few dribbles around her defender and scored. Then, she ran down the court and blocked another shot.
Cunningham came back into the game later in the fourth quarter, scored on an assist from Sahnya Jah. She anticipated a lazy pass and picked a steal and scored. That was the exclamation point on an afternoon performance with 16 points, nine rebounds, three blocks, three steals and one assist in 19 minutes of action.
If this were a home game, there's no doubt that Arizona coach Adia Barnes would have selected Cunningham as the player of the game — for the third consecutive game.
“I think she’s just playing a lot smarter,” Barnes said. “I think today you saw a lot of times in our press, the alleviator would be the five that gets it and flashes the ball. She had some deflections off of that; she had to steal and went coast- to-coast. She would have never been able to do that a year ago, and she's not even the game shape she needs to be. I think she's just getting better. She's improved. She now has a year into her belt. She's more experienced, she knows what not to do, and she's just becoming a really good player.”
Arizona forward Breya Cunningham, seen here on Oct. 25, 2024, had 16 points in UA's win at UC San Diego on Sunday.
But there was so much more going on in Cunningham’s game that just what meets the eye. She was making smart decisions playing against smaller players. Something that is at times has been difficult for the 6-4 forward, who is playing against players who might be a foot shorter than her. She only had one foul until she returned for that fourth-quarter finale — and then only picked up one more.
Cunningham is standing up tall when defending to make her opponent miss the shot and not leaning over.
No other Wildcats scored in double figures. Isis Beh had nine points in 17 minutes, Skylar Jones had 8 points and Lauryn Swann chipped in seven points.
The matchup started out as a defensive tussle, with the Wildcats taking a 31-20 lead into halftime. At the half, 23 fouls had been called. By the end, this ballooned to 41, with Arizona getting called for 25 of them.
At the start of the third quarter, Arizona pulled away, taking a 27-point lead during the thrid quarter.
In the third quarter, the game also turned a bit physical as Williams and Paulina Paris collided under the basket. Paris popped right up, while Williams hurt her left knee. She was helped off the court by trainer Bart Jameson and was seen on the bike talking to Barnes. After the game, Barnes said that Williams landed on her kneecap. Barnes didn’t want to or need to play her in this game, therefore Williams returned to the bench, where she watched the rest of the game.
Not too long after that, Lauryn Swann ended up on the ground after an opponent fell into her back. She got up slowly and was holding her left shoulder. She did return to the game and Barnes said that Swann is sore, but will be fine.
The big lead was chipped away in the fourth quarter as different rotations were left in to give players more live-game experience.
She said it
“(In the fourth quarter) we went deep into our bench, had a lot of youth out there a lot of times. I don’t like our turnovers, our assist-to-turnover ratio I don’t love. But I think a lot of it is getting comfortable with the offense, getting used to each other, and just a lot of young mistakes. I mean, a lot of times we have all freshmen and sophomores out there, or freshmen and one sophomore. It's just learning and getting better and just work in progress. I told the players, it's a marathon, not a sprint.” -- Barnes
Key moment
At the start of the third quarter, the Wildcats came out on fire. Everything was clicking as Cunningham scored first, followed by Williams' first made basket of the game — a floater from four feet away. Beh followed with back-to-back inside shots. Cunningham picked a steal, Beh was fouled and made both free throws to give UA a 41-22 lead just three minutes into the second half. The Wildcats outscored the Tritons 23-11 in the third quarter.
Stuffing the stat sheet
Williams: 4 steals, 4 points, 2 assists.
Paris: 5 points, 2 steals, 3 assists, 4 rebounds.
Jah: 6 points, 2 assists,
Katarina Knezevic: 6 points, 6 rebounds.
By the numbers
47: It was not a pretty game as there were 47 total turnovers, with the Wildcats having 23 of them.
34: Arizona scored a total of 34 points in the paint.
70.6%: The Wildcats shot 70.6% from the free throw line (12 of 17).
