In Arizona's final exhibition game before the start of the regular season, the Wildcats offense exploded against Arizona Christian and shot 53% from the field as the team secured a 110-39 victory.
The offense was sparked by a combination of the Wildcats 3-point shooting, and the bench, which dropped 71 points.
"It's really promising. I think that it enables you to go deeper into your bench and be able to play different ways. So we can play really big. And yet you saw I'm playing Helena Pueyo a little bit at the one, I'm moving things like that and she did a really good job. So it's just good to have different possibilities.
"I think that always helps. I think that's what good teams have; if you look at Stanford, they can play different ways. They can score a lot of different ways. And they're one of the best teams in the country. So we need that. Some lineups can be more press base; some lineups can be more shooting if someone plays a zone against us. I like being able to, but most coaches probably have a consistent eight-player rotation. But also, I've never had so many good players. So I don't know, I have to see because it could go deeper," said coach Adia Barnes after her team's final exhibition game.
As a team, Arizona went 15 for 31 from behind the line and the trio of Madison Conner, Taylor Chavez and freshman Gisela Sanchez combined to go 11 for 17 and accounted for 44 points.
In the fourth quarter, Conner went off, scoring 15 of her 18 points and went 5 for 6 from the 3-point line. During the Wildcats two exhibition games, she has been red-hot from beyond the arc, hitting eight shots and making 57% of her attempts.
However, the surprise of the night was Sanchez, who scored 17 points on 7 for 11 shooting from the field and in the second quarter went on her own personal 7-0 run.
"She's a 6-4 versatile player, so I knew she has a chance to be really good. For us getting two of the best Europeans in Gisela and Anna Gret was great. Anna hasn't played her best, but she's adjusting she's going to be good.
"Gisela, her size, length, and spark she brings, she brings a lot of defensive tenacity and grit. I like that; she was pressing when we weren't pressing; she can shoot the three and pass the ball. She can play two through four. She runs like a gazelle. She has to get stronger, but I think she's going to be a really good player," said Barnes about her freshman guard.
There are players in a game that make more of an impact than their final stat line indicates and it is truly their leadership and communication that helps the team more than anything. For the Wildcats, that player was second-year forward Lauren Ware, who finished with 11 points and eight rebounds.
During the offseason Ware was part of the U19 USA team who competed and won a gold medal 2021 World Cup.
In the game against ACU, you could hear Ware letting her teammates know where they needed to be and seeing her help underclassmen through their errors.
"It helped me a lot. Just playing with those good girls and, like, good coaches and playing gets really good teams, you're kind of forced to communicate. They're not going to allow you not to; it's just kind of the environment that you ran. So I think that made me more confident in my leadership skills and just being more vocal on the floor," said Ware on her experience in the World Cup.
Arizona will begin its season Nov. 9, against Cal State Northridge at 5 p.m. MST. The game will be part of a doubleheader with the men's team starting its season as well later that night at 8:30 p.m.
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