Arizona holds off UC Riverside 62-59 to open Becky Burke era on winning note

Mickayla "Micky" Perdue had 17 points off the bench while Arizona held off a late UC Riverside rally to win 62-59 and give Becky Burke a victory in her first regular-season game as the Wildcats’ new head coach.

Guard Noelani Cornfield, who followed Burke to Arizona from Buffalo last spring, added 10 points and eight assists.

"I couldn't ask for anything more," Burke said. "I'm really excited for our staff, our program, this group, and couldn't be happier for win No. 1 at Arizona. I'm very thankful and very blessed."

UA struggled early and trailed 25-23 at halftime but led by up to nine points early in the fourth quarter, the last on a layup by Nora Francois with 4:55 left.

Then the Wildcats nearly fumbled it all away: The Highlanders hit three 3-pointers from there to help tie it at 58 with 1:58 left while the Wildcats committed two turnovers in the final 34 seconds to give the Highlanders chances to win or send the game into overtime.

Cornfield hit a jumper to give UA a 60-58 lead with 1:34 left but committed a turnover on the Wildcats' next possession and fouled Kaylani Polk, who hit 1 of 2 ensuing free throws with 33 seconds left to leave UA with a 60-59 lead.

With 10 seconds remaining, UC Riverside’s Bria Shine stole the ball from Arizona’s Daniah Trammel to give the Highlanders a chance to win it. Then Riverside’s Maya Chocano tried to drive inside in the final seconds but missed a shot and Sumayah Sugapong picked up the rebound. Chocano then fouled Sugapong, who hit both free throws to give UA a 62-59 lead with 1.6 seconds left.

"We really know how to make it interesting, so I need to correct and fix some things down the stretch and make sure we don't make it quite as interesting as we did," Burke said. "But at the end of the day, they found a way to win.

"It's so hard to win college basketball games at any level, and I think you've just seen improvement from exhibition 1 to exhibition 2 to Game 1, and that's what we look for as coaches. We don't expect them to be a finished product right now, but I've seen improvement every single night."

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Burke went with an opening-night lineup of Cornfield, Molly Ladwig, Sugapong, Mireia Jurado and Trammell. That left Perdue, the Horizon League Player of the Year last season, on the bench.

Burke said she made the decision to bench Perdue because she was challenging her, unhappy with Perdue's effort in an exhibition loss on Oct. 23 to West Texas A&M.

"I needed her to get that chip on her shoulder back," Burke said.

It appeared to work. Perdue entered the game just after two minutes were played and hit her stride in the second quarter. She had seven of Arizona’s nine points in the second quarter and then hit 3s on two straight UA possessions in the third quarter, one to tie the game at 31 and one to put the Wildcats up 34-31.

Perdue later drove in for a layup to give UA a 46-38 lead late in the third, with UA taking a seven-point lead into the third quarter.

"I take a challenge well," Perdue said. "Like 'OK, challenge me.' I'm a competitive person."

In the first half, even as Burke put Perdue in, the Wildcats were struggling early. They made just one of their first nine field goals and fell behind 8-3 early before Cornfield and Perdue each scored within the final 39 seconds of the first quarter to give Arizona a 14-12 lead heading into the second quarter.

Perdue went on to score seven of Arizona’s nine points in the second quarter, including the Wildcats’ first 3-pointer of the game. Arizona shot just 29.6% in the first half and missed six of their seven 3s.

The Highlanders shot 40.9% overall in the first half, made 4 of 11 3s and outrebounded Arizona 20-12. For the game, the Highlanders out rebounded the Wildcats 33-24 but Arizona shot 46.0% and scored 18 points on 23 UC Riverside turnovers. 

Photos: Arizona women's basketball opens season with 62-59 win against UC Riverside