Arizona Wildcats claw past Auburn 69-59 in NCAA Tournament First Four matchup

STORRS, Conn. — For the Arizona Wildcats, it all came down to experience.

When Auburn started climbing back into the game with less than three minutes to go, the Wildcats turned to a fifth year senior to get the job done.

Helena Pueyo shifted over to the point guard position and turned it up a notch to lead Arizona (18-15) to a 69-59 win over Auburn (20-12) Thursday night in a First Four, play-in style matchup to open up the 2024 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament.

Up next for the 11th-seeded Wildcats: a matchup with sixth-seeded Syracuse in the tournament’s official first round Saturday at 12:30 p.m. at UConn’s Gampel Pavilion. The game will air on ESPN 2.

UA coach Adia Barnes collected her 150th career win as a head coach — all of them coming at Arizona. She is also 4-0 in opening round games of the NCAA Tournament in the last four years.

The Wildcats, who led by as many as 17 points in the third quarter, saw their lead dwindle down to five as the Tigers shots started falling in the final minutes of the game.

That's when Barnes made the key strategic move of the game — switching Pueyo to point guard as Auburn’s Marshaun Bostic was pressuring Jada Williams a little too much.

Pueyo took over. She scored six of her eight points in the last four minutes and 30 seconds, pulled down a defensive rebound, had two assists and a block. She finished with 16 points (6 of 10 from the field) and two from long distance, collected four assists, three steals and that one block – all in 39 minutes of action.

Williams said things started getting a little “chippy” and it was evident that Pueyo got a little mad.

“When you get Helena mad, then I think it’s over for you,” Williams said with a laugh. “She doesn’t get mad (too often), but she has the ability to take over a game.”

Williams was Arizona’s leading scorer with 17 points, even though her shot really wasn’t falling early. Instead, she kept at it driving to the hoop and drawing fouls; the Tigers fouled her 10 times in all. She went 8 for 11 from the line. Aggressive was just how she played on both ends of the court, as she was getting deflections, taking charges and just having active hands.

“Jada did a great job of finding a way to score when it wasn't with soothing,” Barnes said. “It wasn't with her shot. It wasn't just spot-up threes or pull-up jumpers — those weren't falling. So, what did she do? She knows that they're aggressive, she's really smart, and she started attacking the rim. And that was that's a good way to get confidence and get back into the game.”

Esmery Martinez, who played with four fouls, scored 14 points, pulled down seven rebounds — including two down the stretch — and picked five steals.

Skylar Jones finished with 13 points (4 of 8 from the field) and added three steals and a block. When Arizona was pulling away in the fourth quarter, Jones had back-to-back layups. On one she caught a pass from Pueyo when she was up in the air and somehow scored. While the play was exciting, Jones said that usually in practice she just tips the ball in, “but they were too aggressive, too big.”

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

“I had to just go down on my feet because Salvo was screaming at us to jump stop,” Jones said.

Arizona just disrupted a much bigger Auburn team. Even with that run the Tigers had a difficult time getting into their offensive rhythm as the Wildcats were trapping, altering shots and not giving them space to do anything. UA held Auburn to 39.7% shooting.

The Wildcats forced 23 turnovers and scored 23 points off them.

Auburn's Honestly Scott-Grayson was the only Tiger in double figures with 13 points.

She said it

Barnes on the win: “If you saw how we defended in the first quarter, the second quarter, (we did) really well. I thought our on-ball defense, our pick-and-roll defense really disrupted them. (We) didn't allow them to go downhill because they’re very good at going downhill and they’re really athletic and tough to guard one-on-one.

"You saw a shift in the third quarter because we had foul trouble. We had to go more passive on our on-balls and then we gave up 20 points in the third quarter. And we had only given up 19 points in the first two quarters. That does limit us but I think just us learning how the game is being called and being smarter is very important.”

By the numbers

13: Arizona had 13 assists on 22 made field goals.

33: Auburn’s bench scored 33 points while Arizona’s scored 4 points.

20: Both teams had difficulty at the line. Arizona made 20 of the 30 attempts (66.7%), while Auburn made 12 of 19 attempts (63.2%).

9: All seven Wildcats scored. Breya Cunningham (5), Courtney Blakely (2) and Isis Beh (2) combined for nine points. 

Photos: Arizona Wildcats defeat Auburn, 69-59, in 'First Four' of NCAA Women's Tournament