The No. 6 Arizona Women’s Basketball team asserted their dominance opening Territorial Cup Weekend with a dominant, 65-37 win over Arizona State.
Entering Thursday night with their highest ranking in school history, the No. 6 Arizona Women’s Basketball team came out ready to play from the tip, asserting their supremacy in the state of Arizona.
Transfer Bendu Yeaney drew into coach Adia Barnes’ starting lineup for the first time in her Wildcat career and opened the scoring for Arizona.
Arizona Wildcats
In a back and forth first quarter, it was the Wildcats who found themselves out front early, taking a 10-6 lead at the initial media timeout, and then extended their lead to 15-9 at the end of the quarter.
Holding the Sun Devils to 1-8 shooting and four turnovers in the final 5:23 of the quarter, it was Arizona that established their dominance, which carried over into the second quarter as well.
Wildcat sharpshooter Helena Pueyo quickly extended Arizona’s lead into double figures in the second quarter. From there it was the Aari McDonald show, as she matched the Sun Devils in scoring up until midway through the second quarter.
McDonald paced all scorers in the first half with 11 points, while Pueyo chipped in with six of her own, all from behind the arc.
And following the Wildcats’ win over USC last weekend, it seems as if the team was able to fix their defensive post problems, largely holding Arizona State at bay.
The Wildcats were also able to convert 11 points off of turnovers in the half, extending their lead to 16, going up 34-18 at the half!
Dominating in the first half, it was much for the same for Arizona in the 3rd quarter as they grew their lead to 52-30, as McDonald just kept pouring in bucket after bucket, adding another nine points in the quarter, giving her an even 20 for the game to that point.
The 4th quarter saw Derin Erdogan open her Wildcat scoring account with a three, as well as Marta Garcia who also scored her first points as well.
Even while Barnes rotated through her bench, the scoring and defense never really suffered, as the Wildcats continued to run away from the Sun Devils to end it.
The second half largely allowed Barnes to go 13 deep, allowing more players to some get much needed playing time, building the coaches trust so that they can provide just that much more depth off the bench.
Lauren Ware though light on the score sheet, provides a large presence on the defensive end, showing just how she can impact a game even when the box score says otherwise. The Wildcats held Arizona State to just 27 percent shooting while forcing 23 turnovers for the game!
Arizona Women’s Basketball News and Notes:
- The Wildcats have now won 29 straight whenever they lead by at least 10 points at any point during the game.
- Arizona has been ranked by the AP for 19-straight weeks, for the first time since the 1999-00 season.
- Tonight was Aari McDonald’s 70th-straight game scoring in double figures, the longest active streak in Women’s Basketball by more than 20 games.
- McDonald and Sam Thomas now stand atop the Pac-12 leaderboard in career steals with 213 and 168 respectively.
At Zona Zealots, we’re glad to see the Wildcats dominant in this head-to-head matchup and hope that continues throughout the year. As always, Bear Down, Arizona!