No. 7 Arizona Women’s Basketball rallies to beat USC 78-77

Led by Aari McDonald, the No. 7 Arizona Women’s Basketball team sends USC back to Los Angeles with an 0-2 record on their weekend trip to Arizona.

After beating No. 9 UCLA just just a couple of days ago, Adia Barnes and the Arizona Women’s Basketball team was back in action for the 2nd time in three games, looking to sweep the LA schools with their matchup against the USC Trojans at the McKale Center on Sunday afternoon.

So far as we are seeing this season, slow starts are becoming a trend, and perhaps you can chalk it up to the lack of a non-conference season.

Arizona Wildcats

Led on offense by star guard Aari McDonald, the savvy and talented veteran led all players with 30 points, while Cate Reese chipped in 25 of her own, in their second half, comeback 78-77 win over USC.

Even though the Wildcats are now 3-0 and No. 7 in the country, they are still very much a work in progress.

However, a concerning trend continued, as USC was able to get into the paint early with relative ease in the first half. Driving for layups, while also strongly contesting their own interior, USC was able to jump out to a 21-19 lead at the end of the quarter.

Unfortunately the second quarter was much of the same, as the sides largely alternated baskets, with USC seeing more luck down low, expanding their lead to three at the half.

The third quarter started out by watching USC extend their lead to 11 at one point, and luckily for us, Aari then took over, and did her thing, pushing the Wildcats to get the lead back at 57-56.

Arizona then stretched their lead to 60-56 with a three-point buzzer beater by McDonald, and at that point, the Wildcats didn’t look back.

Using that momentum to propel them into the fourth quarter, Arizona stretched their lead to eight, holding the 64-56 lead with 8:00 to play.

USC would keep it close down the stretch, but luckily it was the Cats who pulled away, capitalizing off of 12 forced, Trojan turnovers, which led to 14 points.

Tucson We Have A Post Problem

For as good as Cate, Lauren Ware, and Trinity Baptiste have been on the offensive side of the court, Arizona’s post defense has been glaringly bad. 16 of USC’s 37 first half points came on largely uncontested layups, allowing for them to maintain a first half lead over the Wildcats.

After allowing UCLA to dominate the paint on Friday, unfortunately that continued as Arizona lacked a defensive post presence against USC as well.

Moving forward, this is a big concern for a team with Final Four aspirations this season. On the positive side, Coach Barnes has been able to get buy-in from the forwards to largely turn things around in the second half, which has been promising.

Arizona Women’s Basketball news and notes:

• Aari McDonald entered the USC game as NCAA’s active leading scorer, before chipping in with 30 points against the Trojans. She also ranks 2nd in the NCAA in steals per game on the season averaging six per game entering the day.
• The Wildcats opened the season ranking No. 7, which is the first time the team has been ranked in the Top 10, since the final rankings of the ’97-’98 season.
• Both McDonald and Cate Reese were listed on the Wooden Award Watch List.
• Per ESPN’s initial WNBA Mock Draft, Aari was project to go No. 2 to the Dallas Wings.
• Of Arizona’s six, international players, Shaina Pellington leads the way with 5.0 PPG (including Sunday’s win).
• With the win over UCLA, Arizona is 3-1 against Top 10 teams in the 2020 calendar year.

At Zona Zealots, we’re excited in continuing to follow this team and hope the Wildcats can continue to find success! As always, Bear Down, Arizona!