The defining moment of Arizona women's basketball's season | PJ Brown

It’s been a long women’s basketball season.

That’s how it feels when you’re a young team like Arizona’s squad.

The Wildcats have learned so much over the last three months and everything seemed to come at them fast.

There were spurts and droughts, bright spots and tough moments.

And just when the Wildcats might have seemed to get a little bit of a handle on things, in came the gauntlet of the Big 12 schedule. Every season seems to have one of these — usually towards the start of conference play. And it can be brutal when a team is trying to find its bearings.

Last season, Arizona played three consecutive games against top teams in the nation — No. 5 Colorado, No. 15 Utah and Oregon State. They also played back-to-back weekends in the Pacific Northwest — first the Oregon schools and a delay in getting home because of a storm. Then, right back on the road a few days later to play the Washington schools.

In that stretch, the Wildcats went 1-5. They lost by one point, won by one point in overtime, lost by three in double overtime and the last pair were lost by two points each.

This year, Arizona also played three consecutive games against teams in the top tier of the league in Baylor, Iowa State and then-No. 11 Kansas State. While these games might not have been as close as a few points here or there, the Wildcats ended up 2-4, taking Baylor to overtime and having a good run in each of the losses.

Just one week ago, Arizona took the third consecutive loss at Kansas State, 62-47. The Wildcats went on a 12-2 run in the third quarter to come within three points, but couldn’t finish in the final frame, only scoring six points.

Still, the UA defense held Kansas State 22 points under its average of 84.4 points per game and forced 16 turnovers.

In each of the four losses, there were a lot of good performances, it just wasn’t enough to get the Wildcats over the hump. The reality was that during this stretch they were trying to figure it all out.

And then came Kansas. Somewhere in a hotel conference room in that Midwestern state, the Wildcats had a moment. Those few extra days on the road really brought the Wildcats together … well, that and Arizona coach Adia Barnes taking a little different approach.

“I talked a lot about how our posts have been defending pretty well,” Barnes said. “In those three games, they played some of the best posts in the country. We played (Baylor’s) Netty Vonleh, we played (Iowa State’s Audi) Crooks and we played (Kansas State’s Ayoka) Lee and the post players held it down. I challenged the guards to step up. I told them ‘Now, y’all got to play defense and step up because the posts are canceling each other out and the X-factors are the guards.’ I think they took that a little bit personal, too.”

So personal that in that Kansas game they rose to the occasion. Jada Williams had five assists, four rebounds and a block; Mailien Rolf added a pair of assists and a steal, and Lauryn Swann pulled down four rebounds and picked a steal. All three combined for 34 points.

Arizona won and stopped a three-game losing streak.

With everyone doing their part, it all started clicking for the Wildcats. On offense, they were moving, sharing the ball, setting screens and finding that great, high-percentage shot. On defense, they were not giving their opponents a lot of space, altering shots, forcing turnovers.

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It wasn’t just a seven-minute comeback, it started from the tip and the Wildcats didn’t stop fighting until the buzzer sounded. This was evidenced by Isis Beh getting a steal with under one minute left, passing to Rolf and getting it back for a score.

And it wasn’t just a one-off.

The Wildcats came home on Wednesday night and got off to an intense start, going up 15-2 at the end of the first quarter. And while there may have been a little letdown, they held the lead the entire game. They dominated a Cincinnati team that is known for getting offensive rebounds – out-rebounding them 41-38 and holding them to only six o boards in the first quarter. They dismissed a Bearcats team that is known for throwing all kinds of presses at their opponents. Arizona didn’t have any issue getting the ball up the court.

In this one, the guards stepped up again. Williams, Paulina Paris, Rolf, Skylar Jones and Swann combined for 12 assists, 14 rebounds, a pair of steals (Paris) and 56 points.

However, it wasn’t just the win and how the guards raised their game against Cincinnati, it was how they responded to adversity.

In the past, they might have folded but this time when Swann wasn’t available in the second half — she took an elbow to her ear as she was driving to the basket before the halftime buzzer — they were steady and with the spark that Jones provided, pulled away for a 10-point victory.

Jones scored 16 points in 16 minutes, pulled down five rebounds and was a defensive stopper. She was the only Wildcat who could contain Tineya Hylton, who finished with 25 points. Jones limited her to six points in the fourth quarter.

This is another area of growth that is propelling the Wildcats forward. A month ago, or even a few weeks ago, when a teammate was out with an injury, it was hard for the Wildcats to find that next woman up. Now, with everyone playing at this level, they can handle this curve ball as a team.

When the story of the Wildcats’ 2024-25 season is told, it will be their time spent in Kansas that will be the defining moment of the season.

If they hadn’t gotten back in the win column, it could have turned into a long, ugly stretch of losing.

Instead, eight games into the Big 12 season, and Arizona is 4-4 in league play with 13 total wins. There are plenty of games left to be played — starting with No. 16 West Virginia on Saturday night. And it’s a long way to become NCAA Tournament-eligible. The Wildcats will need to get to 20 wins to solidly be in contention and raise that NET. They are already headed in the right direction, as their NET climbed up 20 spots — from 83rd to 63rd — this week.

To make the NCAAs for the fifth consecutive season, there is still a lot of work to be done. It will take consistent team play, winning the games they should win and stealing a game or two from these opponents: West Virginia, Utah, Oklahoma State or TCU.

It will also take what we’ve seen in the last two games with everyone contributing and continuing to get better every day, every game. This includes perfecting what they do well, learning even more intricacies of the defense and offense, as well as continuing to work on those fundamentals. It’s everything from staying on balance when taking shots, keeping the movement up on offense to free throws and spacing on the floor.

As UA assistant Salvo Coppa said, “There is a process. It’s not like you work today and tomorrow it’s going to come.”

But when it does come, it starts looking like how Arizona has played over the last two games.

This Wildcats squad has definitely not peaked — that’ll come sometime in February — but we are now seeing even more of who they are and who they could be once that training and those reps start taking flight in another month.