Arizona Women’s Basketball dominates in Exhibition Opener

TUCSON, AZ – Kicking off the 2021-22 season, Arizona Women’s Basketball returned to action with a dominating Exhibition win over Eastern New Mexico.

We may have a new look Wildcats this year without Aari McDonald, but on Thursday evening, it still looked like the same Arizona Women’s Basketball team as they dominated Eastern Washington 84-25 in their first Exhibition game of 2021-22.

Arizona would have three different players finish with double-digit scoring totals, and overall, it was a complete team effort as the Wildcats dominated this one from start to finish.

The Wildcats would shoot just okay on the evening, finishing 33-70 (47.1 percent) from the field, including 9-27 from three (33.3 percent). However, Arizona still controlled this one.

Opening up the first quarter by outscoring ENMU 20-5, the Wildcats even extended their lead in the second quarter when they led 43-14 at the half.

A strong second half propels Arizona Women’s Basketball in their emphatic, exhibition win over Eastern New Mexico.

Exhibition games are always about working the kinks out for teams and trying to find your rotation, and for Arizona Women’s Basketball, that is certainly the case this year as the Wildcats still break in several players on a new team.

Using 15 players, with 13 of them getting double-digit minutes, head coach Adia Barnes used a deep rotation on Thursday evening, and there wasn’t a breakdown in production as the Wildcats still dominated, outscoring the Greyhounds 41-11 in the second half.

The Wildcats would eventually cruise to the 59-point win, and it was a great showing to start the 2021-22 season. However, Arizona will have until next Friday to return to action when they take on in-state foe, Arizona Christian in Tucson. The Wildcats’ first official game will be on Nov. 9 when they take on CSU Northridge.

Loaded non-conference schedule awaits Arizona Women’s Basketball 

Coach Barnes was certainly not shy in scheduling the Wildcats some tough games this year with Louisville (Nov. 12), Vanderbilt (Nov. 25), DePaul (Nov. 26), Rutgers (Nov. 27), and Texas (Dec. 19) all looming in the coming weeks.

Arizona should have a competitive group once again in 2021-22, and Thursday evening against Eastern New Mexico was perhaps a great preview of what kind of group we have with the Wildcats.