It's hard to imagine Arizona's first NCAA Tournament game in 16 years going much better than it did Monday in San Antonio as the Wildcats cruised to a victory over 14th-seeded Stony Brook.
The UA defense was suffocating and helped the Wildcats come away with a 79-44 win over the Seawolves in the first round of the tournament. It was the largest margin of victory for Arizona in an NCAA Tournament game in program history.
The third-seeded Wildcats leaned on their defense early in the game to create separation as they jumped out to a 16-point lead by the end of the first quarter after allowing just 10 points through the first 10 minutes. UA forced 11 turnovers in the opening quarter leading to 17 points off those takeaways.
The defensive effort gave the Wildcats an opportunity to create some separation and roll to their first NCAA Tournament victory since 2005.
"We hadn't played for two and a half weeks, so I was concerned about how we were gonna come out," Arizona head coach Adia Barnes said. "Are we gonna be too nervous? This is our first time in the tournament. This is uncharted territory, but we handled it like champs. I thought we came out with the intensity that I expected and I wanted to see.
"So, I'm very happy for this team."
Star senior guard Aari McDonald, who earlier in the day was named a Naismith Defensive Player of the Year finalist, led the way for Arizona with 20 points to go with four assists and three steals. She was not alone, however, as the Wildcats received contributions from all of their top players in the win.
Virginia Tech transfer Trinity Baptiste put together an impressive performance in her NCAA Tournament debut as she scored 18 points and missed just two shots from the field to go with six rebounds and three steals.
Fellow UA forward Cate Reese was also efficient from the floor with just two misses on nine shot attempts to finish with 16 points and six rebounds in the Arizona win.
Senior forward Sam Thomas made her only shot attempt to finish with two points, but she made her presence felt all over the floor. She had a game-high six steals plus three assists for the Wildcats in Monday's victory.
In all UA had six players finish with at least five points with four players having at least three steals in the game.
"My teammates and I we live for these moments," McDonald said. "This is what we've been waiting for. This is all the work we've been putting in. To see a total balance today I can't complain. I'm excited and we just gotta carry this to the next game."
Arizona (17-5) did not have a strong finish to its regular season and was bounced early in the Pac-12 Tournament by UCLA. In the time since that event in Las Vegas, Barnes has had her team focused on getting back to playing as well as it was early in the season when it was able to beat teams such as UCLA and Oregon.
The UA head coach praised her team last week for having strong practices leading into Monday's game and she saw the benefits of that against Stony Brook.
"I felt that we got better the last two weeks," Barnes said. "I think mentally, physically just as a team more connected. I really felt that way. I felt like we started the game how I hoped we would start the game. So, I'm really proud.
"Our goal was to force them into 25 turnovers. We did that. Our goal was a certain amount of points. We held them under the points we wanted. ... All the things we set out to do we did and we did well. So, I'm just proud of us."
The Wildcats will now get refocused on the next round of the tournament as they will face No. 11 seed BYU, which upset sixth-seeded Rutgers on Monday, in the second round on Wednesday at 11 a.m. MST.
"I said we celebrate for about a hour this game and it's on to the next one," Barnes said. "Then all of our focus is on BYU, nothing else. We don't get too high or too low this time of year. It's one and done. We're undefeated right now so we're going for one more. There's nothing to look ahead, it is all BYU. Our focus in about a hour turns to that. They're a good team. Everybody this time a year is very good."
WATCH: Arizona coach Adia Barnes recaps Monday's win over Stony Brook (full video)
WATCH: Aari McDonald, Sam Thomas & Trinity Baptiste discuss NCAA Tournament win (full video)
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