Determination, heart, home crowd pushes Arizona's 7-player rotation to 66-55 win over Cal

Take a little home cooking, add in some team ball and the want to win.

This was the perfect mixture as Arizona defeated Cal 66-55 Friday night at McKale Center in front of 7,268 fans.

The Wildcats ended a four-game losing streak — all in the Pacific Northwest over the last two weeks in back-to-back road weekends.

Arizona improves to 11-9 overall and 3-5 in Pac-12 play, while Cal (13-7, 3-5) is the one of the latest Pac-12 teams to lose on the road.

Friday's game may well have been Arizona’s best of the season as the Wildcats' ball movement and team play on the offensive side led to 13 assists on 22 made baskets. Just as important, the UA made the right shots at the right times. The Wildcats shot 50% from the field, doing so with only a seven-player rotation.

Starting guard Kailyn Gilbert dressed but did not play. UA coach Adia Barnes said that Gilbert “wasn’t available” and she made the decision a few hours before the game not to play her so she wouldn’t “risk an injury.” 

It was a balanced attack as all seven players not only scored at least six points, but every Wildcat available played at least 25 minutes. Esmery Martinez led the way with an efficient 20-point outburst. She went 7 of 10 from the field and 6 of 8 from the line. She also added seven rebounds, three assists and two steals, with only one turnover in 28 minutes of action. It is the second time this season that Martinez has put up a 20-piece — the other came in a 73-70 double overtime loss to Oregon State earlier this month.

Jada Williams was the other Wildcat in double figures with 13 — nine of these points from the line. She was aggressive on both ends of the court.

UA’s defense was swarming and regularly getting into the passing lanes; the Wildcats forced 23 turnovers. Arizona also held the Golden Bears to 35% shooting, under their average of 40%.

Freshman Skylar Jones found out during practice that she was going to start for the first time in her UA career. It took a moment to shake the nerves after a few early turnovers, but that's when Martinez, a fifth-year senior, turned to Jones, who she knew was frustrated.

"(She) told me to snap out of it (and) get out of my head,” Jones said.

Jones settled down after that to pick three steals and score six points.

"I think we also came in the locker room (and) talked about how we want to win," Jones said. "We need to do this. We need to get out of this losing streak. And that's what we did today. And we did, we stood on business. That's what we put on the little locker room. And we stood on business and stood on 10 toes and we all came together."

Key moment

Arizona outscored Cal 23-11 in the third quarter to take a nine-point lead, 58-49, into the final frame. A trio of Wildcats — Martinez, Helena Pueyo and Jones — combined for 18 of those third-quarter points. Arizona pulled ahead, 47-45, on a layup by Jones at the 4:41 mark and never relinquished the lead. The Wildcats went to the line four times during the stretch, hitting 6 of 8 free throw attempts. Additionally, Pueyo hit an emphatic 3-pointer, after a steal by Jones, to give UA a nine-point lead with 63 seconds left. UA scored seven points off four Cal turnovers.

She said it

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“It was a relief to be home with our crowd, to be home in our beds,” Barnes said. “We know we play well at home. I think it was just a really a big confidence thing. They knew that we potentially (could) go into the game with seven players and everybody knew they had to step up. I saw it in their eyes in shoot around. They really wanted to win this game. I knew they were going to pour everything on the line to do it and find a way. They did that and they were determined to do it. We talk about our defense and our heart, (and) to have a defensive performance like this when people are playing tons of minutes, that's hard to do with our style. And we have to play that style because that's the way that we could win. I thought that they just were really confident, determined, happy to be home.”

Stuffing the stat sheet

Courtney Blakely: 7 points (3 of 7), 1 steal in 26 minutes

Pueyo: 7 points, 4 assists, 3 steals. 1 block in 40 minutes

Williams: 13 points, 2 assists, 1 steal in 30 minutes

Breya Cunningham: 7 points, 5 rebounds, 2 steals in 26 minutes

Isis Beh: 6 points, 3 assists in 25 minutes

By the numbers

2: After allowing Cal to knock down eight 3-pointers in the first half, Arizona only gave up two the rest of the way.

10: Cal’s Ioanna Krimili scored six points, nearly 11 points under her average of 16.8. In the previous six games, she has averaged 18.5 points.

3: For the third consecutive game, Arizona has out rebounded its opponent. UA had 29 rebounds, while Cal had 25.

Photos: Arizona Wildcats homestand opens with win over Cal, Pac-12 women's basketball