Greg Hansen: Wildcats finish fast in must-win game after another slow start

Let’s be nice here and say that Arizona played so inadequately in Thursday’s 64-46 loss to an unremarkable UCLA team that Wildcat coach Adia Barnes referred to her team as the “Bad News Bears.”

I’m not so sure that was being nice to the original Bad News Bears coach Morris Buttermaker, may he rest in peace. Arizona was so, shall we say, off of its game Thursday that it shot 28% from the field and was out-rebounded 48-26 — at home — by a team that is going to be a No. 7 seed in this week’s Pac-12 Tournament.

And yet the Wildcats were worse early Saturday, trailing an even less remarkable USC team 16-6 after one quarter.

It was the Really Bad News Bears. Incredibly, in its last 15 possessions of the quarter, Arizona did not make a field goal. The Wildcats were 0 for 13 with four turnovers and four air-balls.

“I think the players felt a little bit of pressure,” Barnes would say 90 minutes later. “It was a must-win game. I’m not going to sugarcoat it.”

Pressure? Arizona has raised expectations to such a high level that Saturday’s crowd of 8,256 sat in stunned silence, exasperated. How do you go from 13 consecutive weeks in the Top 10 to a striking resemblance to Barnes’ 6-24 team of 2017-18?

Barnes said that Thursday’s loss “lit the fire” for Saturday’s Senior Day. It must’ve been a delayed fuse.

Finally, in the last 1:22 of the first half, Arizona went BOOM!

Arizona outscored USC 10-0 in those final 82 seconds to take a 34-33 halftime lead, winning 68-59, to all but clinch home-court advantage in the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament.

Talk about high stakes.

“Psychologically, it was a really good win for us,” said Barnes. “We’re very different without our best player.”

That would be senior forward Cate Reese, whose 14-point and 6-rebound averages are sidelined as she recovers from a separated shoulder suffered six days earlier.

022722-tuc-spt-hansencol-p2 — Arizona guard Taylor Chavez bangs the drum after leading Arizona to a 68-59 win over USC.
Mamta Popat, Arizona Daily Star

Somewhere, somehow, Barnes and her assistant coaches, Salvo Coppa, Erin Grant and Ashley Davis, had to find someone to replace Reese’s production. On Saturday, they found it in the least likely place.

What were the odds that junior guard Taylor Chavez, averaging 1.7 points and shooting 29% — sidelined much of the season with concussion and hip issues to the extent that she had only scored three points in the last 13 games — would step forward to all but hand her coach home-court advantage on the first weekend of the Big Dance?

Chavez scored 18 points in 17 minutes. She not only lit the fuse, she made you forget the Bad News Bears. Chavez, who was the first player off the bench for Oregon’s 31-2 Pac-12 championship juggernaut of 2019-20, swished five 3-pointers in such quick order that she broke USC’s almost impenetrable zone defense by herself.

Without her explosive shooting, the offense-challenged Wildcats seemed destined for another 60-something to 40-something loss.

“Taylor is confident, she is smart, she is a great teammate,” said Barnes. “I’m so happy she’s here. I love coaching her.”

Chavez played no part in Thursday’s breakdown against UCLA. She was not in uniform. And even if she did suit up for Senior Day, what were the odds of her being a positive force? Her high point total this season was six, against Texas Southern.

Amazingly, she scored seven points Saturday in the final 1:07 of the first half. Talk about being ready when called upon.

Asked if she thought it would be a lost season for her, Chavez said: “not at all.”

022722-tuc-spt-hansencol-p3 — Arizona forward Koi Love gets a handful from USC forward Jordan Sanders during the second half of Saturday's game.
Mamta Popat, Arizona Daily Star

“I remember my first year at Oregon I think I was 0 for 12 in three or four games, just the biggest funk. But the best way to get out of a funk is to shoot your way out of it. It’s about sticking to it.”

This time she stuck it to the Trojans.

What next? Arizona must play the Colorado-Washington winner in Thursday’s Pac-12 Tournament quarterfinals. If it wins that game, Arizona would almost surely be bracketed with old nemesis Stanford, the undefeated league champion, 16-0.

Between now and then, Barnes and her assistants must find a working strategy that will overcome the UA’s recent first-quarter blues; the Wildcats not only trailed USC 16-4 at one point Saturday, but down the stretch fell behind UCLA 19-8 in the first quarter, trailed Colorado 17-7 and scored just eight points in the first quarter against last-place Washington.

If any part of the Bad News Bears resurfaces in March, it could be a quick trip home from the NCAA Tournament.

“We play in a must-win situation in a couple of days,” said Barnes. “We better get used to it now. That’s going to be our world from now on.”