After beginning the season off strongly reaching an undefeated stretch five games in, Arizona (6-1) was looking for a bounce back after getting pounced at NAU Thursday.
When the Wildcats welcomed Grambling State (2-4), UA continued some uncleanly basketball, but were still able to scrape an 84-60 win in a game that was chippy all over.
Fluid ball control during the beginning half of the first quarter, much better than seen against NAU along with recent weeks had looked like things were changing course in one of the biggest areas holding Arizona down in the 2024-25 season.
That play though began to fizzle out with the Cats having 18 turnovers in the first half that led to 18 points off of those plays.
"I don't know why we're having such a problem, it's not one person it's just collectively," coach Adia Barnes said. "I think ... we're just rushed to make plays. It's not going to be a nice Big 12 if we're averaging 20-something turnovers, we wont win a game."
However, Arizona was able to cut it's turnovers in half in the final two quarters only giving nine possessions away.
It was visible that UA had firm control of this game when the opening buzzer sounded off, but turnovers and mistakes continue to keep teams close behind the Wildcats and even in front of them.
When Grambling State began to take advantage of these costly mistakes, it found itself within three points in five different occasions before finally taking a 36-35 lead before going into the locker room.
The Cats were outscored 23-17 in the second quarter and really elevated the Tigers into the opportunity to close things out.
It was in the second half of the game where Arizona started clicking as it outscored Grambling State 49-24.
"We had some talks at half and some corrections," Barnes said. "I talked about how there can't be like a halftime where I have to reset, we have to start the games like that. Some of that is on me because in the second quarter I went really deep into the bench."
She touched on the balance you need to have in order to get the bench valuable playing time early when it's harder to later in a tight game.
As seen with the 2024-25 Wildcats, there's really no deep game with 3-pointers being a rarity.
Lauryn Swann has been the most consistent option when looked at to shoot from deep with a 41% three-point shot coming into the day, second on the team.
Swann accounted for a team-high 17 points and had six rebounds with two steals to bang the drum for a second time this season postgame.
She made Arizona's only two threes of nine team attempts in the second half that helped the Wildcats run away with the contest.
Luckily, Grambling State only shot 1 of 9 deep so it meant the Wildcats could win in different ways.
Although having 27 turnovers to nine assists, the Cats grabbed a gaudy 51 rebounds and scored 46 of it's points in the paint emphasizing how great UA has been in the post.
The blatant reason for that success is Arizona's primary big in Breya Cunningham who continues her stellar season.
She scored 10 points and was a presence on the inside accounting for eight rebounds and six blocks.
When Cunningham is so consistent at forward, it helps everyone around her get their looks as well.
Guards Jada Williams and Skylar Jones played great games combining for 21 points along with seven rebounds and a big time eight steals from the outside.
Five Wildcats had double-digit points and the wealth was spread to put together a team-wide victory.
Arizona will be back in action next on Tuesday when it'll travel to a neutral site in Palm Springs, CA to take on Vanderbilt (6-0) in the WBB Acrisure Classic that's set for a 2:30 p.m. (MST) tipoff on TruTV.
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