Adia Barnes shook up her starting lineup and it seemed to make all the difference as Arizona upended UCF 75-53 Saturday at Addition Financial Arena in Orlando.
Arizona guard Lauryn Swann (1) scores 3-points for the Wildcats during the match against the Utes, at McKale Center, Dec. 31, 2024.
Barnes didn’t just add in one Wildcat in the rotation, she put in two newbies — freshmen Mailien Rolf and Lauryn Swann — and it was the spark the team needed. After the 69-48 loss to Utah on Tuesday, Barnes said her rookies had definitely earned more playing time.
Rolf picked a steal, and Swann knocked down a 3 to help set the tone within the first few minutes. The Wildcats shared the ball — inside and out and along the 3-point line. On defense, they were swarming, forcing turnovers and disrupting the Knights’ offense.
“I’m happy with how we performed today — especially the first time. I’m not happy with the second half,” Barnes said. “… I think that if you look on paper, we have a lot of similarity with UCF — scoring and field goal percentage, all those things, but they’re a lot more athletic. I was curious to see how we’d handle that, especially after getting our butts kicked a couple days ago against Utah. I’m really happy with how we responded.”
Arizona guard Mailien Rolf (13) and the Wildcats warm up before facing Tarleton State in an early season game on Nov. 7, 2024.
UCF (7-6, 0-3 Big 12) came in averaging a little over 70 points per game and were held well under that for the fourth straight game.
This is the second Big 12 road win for Arizona, now 11-5, 2-1 Big 12.
The Wildcats controlled the game, taking a 18-10 lead after the first 10 minutes and a 43-19 lead into halftime. UCF was held to just 27% shooting and nine points in that second quarter.
In the first half, UA had 11 assists on 14 made field goals. They also scored 18 points off 13 UCF turnovers.
Skylar Jones, who came off the bench, led the Wildcats with 17 points — on a perfect 5 of 5 from the field, including two 3-pointers. She also made all five of her free throws. She added three assists and one steal.
Jones has started every game she’s played in this season — she missed the Weber State game resting her right foot, the one that has plantar fasciitis. The last time Jones came off the bench was prior to the home opener in the exhibition game against Cal State LA.
The one-two punch of Jada Williams and Breya Cunningham each scored 15 points. Cunningham, on an efficient 7 of 9, added four blocks and five rebounds.
After the game, Cunningham said on ESPN+ said that she was just “playing basketball” and “following the scout,” against UCF.
Williams found her shooting groove as the game went on, hitting 3 of her 6 attempts from long range. The sophomore also scored her 500th point as a Wildcat in 48 games.
Arizona Wildcats guard Jada Williams (2) talks with head coach Adia Barnes during the game at the McKale Center, Dec. 31, 2024.
“I’m happy she was able to come out of her slump, because she hasn’t really shot the ball well, except for a couple of games,” Barnes said. “It’s good to see her come back. And I think what I really liked about today was that with the guards we had on the floor a lot, they did a good job of creating shots for each other. I thought this was the first time she actually got some one-two step 3-point shots that were created for her. I just wanted her to have the confidence to take that when she did that. I thought she did a really good job.”
About that second half, that’s when the lull started. Arizona was outscored 16-11 in the third quarter with five turnovers.
The Wildcats picked it back up in the final 10 minutes. So much so, that on back-to-back defensive possessions, the Wildcats forced a turnover and a travel. With 3:32 left in the game, forward Isis Beh knocked down her first 3-pointer of the season and followed that with a layup to finish with nine points (3 of 4 from the field), three rebounds and two assists.
She said it
“I thought Mailien, Jada and Lauryn did a really good job of driving and kicking multiple passes that we don’t see a lot. … I think that was good. I think the ball moved really good and that showed with we had (11) assists on (14) field goals in the first half, and so almost every basket was assisted on. So that’s a positive thing. That means our offense is going well and doing a good job. That was against man or zone. I thought those things were good. I thought we started off the game solid. Now, the second half happened, and it wasn’t so solid.” – Barnes
Stuffing the stat sheet
Montaya Dew: 4 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal and 1 block
Swann: 6 points, 2 assists, 3 rebounds, 3 steals
Rolf: 3 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals
The other side
Kaitlin Peterson scored 17 points and hit eight free throws for UCF. Nevaeh Brown chipped in 11 points.
By the numbers
19: Arizona finished with 19 assists on 25 made field goals.
28: The Wildcats scored 28 points off the Knights’ 23 turnovers.
47.4: Arizona nearly made 50% – 47.4% – of its 3-point attempts (9 of 19) and shot 51% from the field.
