No. 6 Arizona has rarely looked as comfortable as it did Sunday afternoon in Salt Lake City when it faced Utah to finish out its road trip to the Mountain schools. The Wildcats (6-0, 5-0 Pac-12) took control of the game early in the first quarter and eventually widened the gap to a double-digit lead for most of the second half in what ended up as a 77-60 victory for Arizona over the Utes (2-4, 1-4).
UA used a combination of balanced scoring and pressure defense to make its move and gain complete control of Sunday's contest. The win helped Arizona move to 5-0 to start Pac-12 play for the first time in program history in addition to helping the team lock up its first road sweep of the Mountain schools.
In three of its four previous conference games this season Arizona had to come back from double-digit deficits, so Sunday's game was a nice change of pace for head coach Adia Barnes.
"I'm very happy because we were called the comeback kids up until today," she said. "We addressed the slow starts because it doesn't work on the road, so I'm glad that our players went out and mentally adjusted to that. Twenty eight points in the first quarter, I thought that was a really good first quarter for us and probably our best of the year so far."
It was again preseason All-American guard Aari McDonald who led the way for the Wildcats as she finished with 19 points, six rebounds and six assists in the win. While the senior led the team in scoring it was her defense that helped spark an impressive game on that end of the floor for the Wildcats as the reigning Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year came up with six steals to lead all players in Sunday's game.
Overall, the Wildcats had six players with at least one steal and five players with at least two leading to 22 turnovers for the Utes in the game.
"I just told the team in warmups, 'you guys, we cannot come out like we did on Friday. We have to come out with energy, and we can't keep digging ourselves in holes. We just can't,'" McDonald said about her message to the team coming off Friday's win over Colorado in which UA went down 12 points during one stretch. "My teammates really took that to heart and we came out and it started with me playing defense. Sam (Thomas) got a steal, Cate (Reese) did and we were converting. I think that we're just tired of digging ourselves in holes.
"We're a competitive team, but against great teams we're not gonna be able to come from behind with those deficits."
It was not just McDonald who made the difference for the Wildcats on Sunday, as UA received contributions from all over the floor. Thomas and Reese both added 11 points for the Wildcats while reserve guard Shaina Pellington scored nine points and grabbed three rebounds in the victory.
Overall, the Wildcats had 10 different players score in the game with 13 players getting an opportunity to get on the floor against the Utes. Barnes was glad to see the team go a bit deeper on the bench in Sunday's victory.
"The season is long," she said. "When we're playing 22 conference games we have to find ways to rest our starters or else at the end of the season they're gonna be done. So find ways to rest them, even if it's a couple minutes here or there each game, it's an accumulation of all those things that at at the end of the season it's really important.
"So, that was the plan. Here in the altitude is another reason, obviously. I thought our bench did a really good job of stepping up. ... We're really good when we can go into our bench and not fall off. So, that's why it's a team win. We want to be able to do that. We want to get people experience and have them ready for down the stretch, and that's what we wanted to do this weekend."
A matchup with No. 1 Stanford is sitting on the horizon for the Wildcats, so being as ready as they can be for that game remains a priority. The team doesn't feel it is at that point yet, but Sunday's game was another step forward in the right direction.
"I think we're close to where we used to be, our identity, but I just think we're not there yet," McDonald said. "We gotta keep getting our chemistry better, keep playing smothering defense. We have to play good minutes of basketball, 40 minutes. Defense, offense, execute. It's honestly back to the drawing board, that's how I think about every game no matter win or a loss. We gotta keep getting better and know our stuff.
"We're just not there yet."
The Wildcats have just one more game before facing Stanford as UA welcomes Idaho to McKale Center on Wednesday for a meeting at 12 p.m. MST.
****
> DISCUSS the article with other Arizona fans Inside McKale
> WATCH the latest videos from GOAZCATS.com and subscribe to our YouTube channel
> FOLLOW us on Twitter (@goazcatscom, @MattGOAZCATS)
> FOLLOW us on Instagram (@goazcats)
> LIKE us on Facebook
> SUBSCRIBE for all the latest Arizona Wildcats team and recruiting news (subscribe now)
