Esmery Martinez, Jada Williams lead way as Arizona completes Bay Area sweep, crushing Cal 87-68

It would have been easy for Arizona to just ride out the win on Friday night over No. 3 Stanford.

It was a huge win — the Wildcats’ first against a top-five team on the road and the first in Maples Pavilion since 2001.

Instead, true to what Arizona is made of — that never-give-up mentality — it came into Haas Pavilion on a mission: to sweep the Bay Area weekend trip.

And they did just that in a spectacular way, taking a 24-point lead after a big second quarter and using big performances by Jada Williams and Esmery Martinez to crush Cal 87-68 Sunday afternoon in Berkeley.

Arizona, on a four-game winning streak, is now 16-12 overall and 8-8 in the Pac-12 — and solidly in sole possession of seventh place in the league. Cal is now 16-12, 6-10 in Pac-12 play and tied with Washington State for eighth place.

UA wraps up the regular season this week as ranked teams USC and UCLA visit Tucson.

UA notched its first sweep of the Bay Area schools — Stanford and Cal — in 23 years. It is also the last time Arizona plays both of them as Pac-12 opponents as Cal and Stanford move to the ACC next year, while the Wildcats will be in the Big 12.

The Wildcats’ journey to a bid for the NCAA Tournament is looking better and better with each game. Before the weekend, Arizona coach Adia Barnes said that if the Wildcats could split the last two weekends of regular season play and take one in the Pac-12 Tournament, most likely they would find themselves in the tournament. Now, with a sweep that included beating the No. 3 team in the nation, the odds of the Wildcats playing in the tourney look even better.

Barnes’ message to her team before the game was the same as it usually is: “Living in the present and taking care of business. Making this weekend special, ending it on a good note.”.

“Not being so caught up in Friday because that’s over with,” Barnes said. “We have a chance to something special this week. And I think that I’ve talked a lot to our team about getting momentum at the right time. And we’re playing better; our best basketball right now.”

The last time Arizona beat a highly-ranked Stanford team (at No. 4), it was at home on an Aari McDonald layup in overtime, 73-72, in 2020. Just nearly 36 hours later, Cal beat UA 55-54 on senior day. This time, the Wildcats got a little revenge, beating the Golden Bears on their senior day.

Martinez gave her constant effort doing it all for the Wildcats. They needed a defensive rebound? She’s there. They needed some points? She scores herself or dishes off to her teammates. Against Cal, she scored 20 points (8 for 15), grabbed nine rebounds, no turnovers and had seven assists — tying her career high, which she earned last year against Cal at McKale Center.

At one point, she was elbowed in the chin. Barnes said her lip was bleeding, and she most likely will need stitches. They stopped the bleeding, and she went back into the game. At another point, she was elbowed, then called for a foul when she pushed back. Then, it turned into a technical as she pointed to the official.

“Her toughness, her fight, the way she plays defense — they way she plays our defense — she plays multiple positions. I played her at the three and the four today,” Barnes said. “She’s physical … At Cal a year ago, gets poked in the eye. Her eye is like bloody, comes out and plays.”

Martinez is just one of the Wildcats who played through difficult moments. Helena Pueyo had someone land on her ankle. She was in pain. She came out, got re-taped and went back in the game. Williams banged knees with an opponent. She sat on the bench, then re-entered the game. Skylar Jones also had an opponent fall on her ankle towards the end of the first half and returned.

Arizona’s defense and offense turned it up a notch in the second quarter, outscoring the Golden Bears 32-11 to go up 52-28 at halftime. In the second half, the Wildcats kept it going dominating in all aspects of the game.

Arizona forced 22 turnovers and turned them into 31 points. UA also out-rebounded Cal 28-25, with 13 coming off the offensive boards. The Wildcats also had 14 second-chance points.

Williams found her form again after Friday night’s 14-point explosion in the last three-plus minutes of the game. She finished with 18 points (7 of 13 from the field). In just under four minutes left in the third quarter, she reeled off 10 points to help give UA a 68-46 lead.

The Wildcats had three others in double figures: Jones with 12, Isis Beh with 11 and Pueyo with 10.

Arizona had eight players in the box score as Brooklyn Rhodes, the latest addition as a walk-on, flew to the Bay Area on Saturday to join the team. She got in at the end of the rout Sunday, playing the final 1:04.

She said it

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Barnes on the win: “I am proud for a couple of reasons. The first thing is, it was such an emotional game on Friday and you got get really, really high and it’s very hard. Fatigue on Sunday is already hard because of our numbers. To show up in such a physical game, then to show up and kind of bear down and figure out a way to win, I was really proud of us. They wanted this win, understood it was important but didn’t under understand the magnitude of it. And you just come in and take care of business and in the manner we did. I’m very, very proud of how we handled it.”

Key moment

Arizona took a 20-17 lead into the second quarter — outscoring Cal 10-4 in the last 2:15 of the frame. The Wildcats kept it going on both ends of the court in the next 10 minutes. Martinez scored 11 points and had four assists, Courtney Blakely chipped in 7 of her 9 points and Jones had five. The Wildcats had 11 points off 19 Cal turnovers and shot 73% in the quarter.

Stuffing the stat sheet

Blakely: 2 steals.

Pueyo: 5 assists.

Williams: 3 assists, 3 steals.

Breya Cunningham: 7 points, 1 block, 2 steals.

Beh: 3 assists, 2 steals.

Jones: 3 steals.

Newest Wildcat

It was announced early on Sunday that Arizona added a walk-on, Brooklyn Rhodes.

Rhodes, a 6-foot forward, adds a little depth for the Wildcats in that position. She went to St. Louis Whitfield High School, where she was a three-sport athlete. In basketball she won the 2021 state championship and in won a 2022 state championship in soccer. She also played volleyball her senior year.

Rhodes and Williams know each other from playing AAU basketball in Missouri.

“She’s quiet and easygoing, so (the players) like her,” Barnes said. “… She’s getting where she fits in. Cheering on the bench; a positive person. … We’re just happy that she was willing to come here and just try to help us.”

By the numbers

3:56: The only time that Arizona didn’t lead was in the first quarter when Cal led for just under four minutes. As soon as the Wildcats took a 20-17 lead at the end of that first frame, they held the lead the rest of the way.

21: UA had 21 assists on 36 made shots.

21: Arizona scored 21 more points than Cal usually gives up in a game (66).

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Photos: Jada Williams, Arizona upsets No. 3 Stanford 68-61, Pac-12 women's college basketball