Tight defense, play of Jada Williams, Kailyn Gilbert lead Arizona to 89-52 rout of Seattle

Arizona was determined to break a habit during the holidays and not wait until the new year.

Finishing the second quarter and starting the second half without intensity was one that cost the UA women's basketball team dearly in recent losses to No. 20 Gonzaga and No. 5 Texas.

But the Wildcats turned it around against Seattle on Sunday afternoon at McKale Center by employing a full-court press and having active hands-on defense, leading to an 89-52 victory to close out nonconference play for the 2023-24 season.

Arizona improves to 9-4 overall (it is 1-0 in Pac-12 play having already defeated ASU in Tempe in mid-December). Seattle drops to 1-10.

For the Wildcats, their signature defense turning into offense was on point early in the matchup, with Jada Williams forcing a 10-second violation and drawing a charge in the first two minutes of action.

The intensity was infectious as all eight Wildcats who played got into the act on both ends of the court. Seven scored and six were in double figures, with Williams leading the way with 18 points.

Kailyn Gilbert, the player of the game, had a double-double (17 points, 10 rebounds) with six assists and three steals. Esmery Martinez finished with 15 points.

Martinez, who was a little banged up, didn’t start on Sunday. She ended up playing just under 20 minutes.

Arizona coach Adia Barnes used that full-court press during various parts of the game — including the end of the second quarter and into the third — in an effort to avoid a letdown.

“Throughout this entire week, it was just defense, defense,” Gilbert said of practices leading up to the game.

Sali Kourouma did not play; she was on the bench in her sweats cheering on her teammates. Barnes said that her shoulder was previously dislocated and was re-injured during practice. Kourouma dislocated it in the second exhibition game, and it was popped back in by the trainer on the court. She is expected to be ready for the Pac-12 home opener Friday against No. 8-ranked Colorado.

Courtney Blakely and Martinez provided sparks off the bench, going after 50/50 balls and fighting for possessions. Blakely picked a steal (she finished with five) after the ball was inbounded, passed to Helena Pueyo, who knocked down a 3-pointer to give UA a 15-9 lead. That’s as close as the score would get the rest of the way, with Arizona holding the lead for 38:18 of the game.

She said it

Freshman forward Breya Cunningham on the quick start of Williams: “Jada is what gets us going in the game. She has a lot of energy. So, just her getting going kind of picks everything else up in the game. When she started doing that in the first quarter, it just fed our energy as a team. We just feed off that energy and that's what got us moving through the first quarter and we kept going in the second quarter.”

Key Moment

Arizona’s defense took over in the second quarter. The Wildcats switched to the full-court press early, then again late. It worked. They outscored the Redhawks 30-7 in that second frame. The active hands turned into quick scores on the offensive end. Seattle made only three field goals on 14 attempted shots and didn’t score for nearly three minutes as Arizona went on a 13-0 run.

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Gilbert scored 11 points (4 of 6 from the field) from all levels — long distance, mid-range and layups. She also grabbed two defensive rebounds, dished two assists and picked two steals. Blakely grabbed two steals and Cunningham blocked two shots during that stretch.

Williams scored six points and had three assists, and Martinez had both her steals.

Stuffing the stat sheet

• Cunningham: 10 points, 8 rebounds, four blocks, two steals.

• Martinez: 5 rebounds, 5 assists.

• Pueyo: 12 points, 6 rebounds, 4 steals, 2 blocks, 2 assists.

• Isis Beh: 10 points, 5 rebounds, 1 block.

By the numbers

18: Arizona forced 18 turnovers in the first half and turned those into 18 points. Ten of those turnovers came in the second quarter. Seattle finished with 23 turnovers for the game, with UA scoring 26 points off them.

2: The Wildcats had 11 assists on 15 made shots in the first half, with two guards — Gilbert and Williams — accounting for 8 of the of 11. Arizona finished with 20 assists on 30 made shots. 

42: The biggest lead for the Wildcats, in the third quarter.

Photos: Arizona Wildcats knock off Seattle 89-52 in nonconference finale, women's college basketball