Arizona's season ended on Thursday night, 71-69 in the WBIT with its second loss to Northern Arizona this season. Playing without Jada Williams, all five Arizona starters played at least 30 minutes. Mailien Rolf was the only played off of the Arizona bench to play more than seven minutes.
Arizona had a chance to tie or win on the final possession of the game. After forcing a shot clock violation with 6.3 seconds remaining, Arizona called timeout. After Northern Arizona took one of their two remaining fouls to give, the inbounds went to Rolf who passed to Skylar Jones and Arizona failed to get a shot off.
Northern Arizona beat Arizona 92-75 in Flagstaff in November. Arizona outscored Northern Arizona 22-18 in the first quarter and extended the lead to 26-18 32 seconds into the second quarter. That was the largest lead of the game for Arizona. Northern Arizona went on a 6-0 run to cut their deficit to 26-24 with 6:04 left in the first half.
Arizona outscored Northern Arizona 14-13 in the second quarter and led 36-31 at halftime. Northern Arizona had the most dominant quarter of the game outscoring Arizona 25-18 in the third to lead 56-54 entering the fourth. After taking a 64-62 lead with 5:40 left, Arizona allowed Northern Arizona to go on a 7-0 run.
Arizona answered with a 5-0 run to tie the game at 69 on two Isis Beh free throws with 1:44 remaining. Nyan Moran put Northern Arizona in front with 1:07 left on the final points of the game. Rolf missed a jump shot on the penultimate possession of the game for Arizona before forcing the shot clock violation.
Jones led Arizona with 21 points and contributed nine rebounds. Breya Cunningham had 19 points, 11 rebounds, five blocks and a steal and Lauryn Swann had 13 points, five rebounds, two assists and two steals. Sophie Glancey led NAU with 23 points and 14 rebounds and Taylor Feldman scored 22.
NAU overcame making four of their 32 three-point shots by out rebounded Arizona 52-41 and having a 26-15 edge in offensive rebounds. Arizona made just five of its 24 three-point attempts. The Wildcats lost despite leading for 23:01. The question entering the offseason is will Adia Barnes receive a contract extension.
There have been reports that Auburn is interesting in hiring Barnes. Barnes has one season left on here contract extension she signed following Arizona reaching the NCAA Tournament Championship Game in 2021 where they lost to Stanford. Arizona has regressed each season since 2021.