What started out looking like it would be a breeze for second-seeded Arizona turned out to be far from that Thursday night in Las Vegas. The Wildcats were challenged by No. 7 seed Washington State in the quarterfinal round of the Pac-12 Tournament after a dominant start by UA.
Eventually, the Cougars were able to pull the game within seven points despite a wave of turnovers. However, the Wildcats would find another gear late in the game to close out WSU, 60-44, and advance to the semifinal round of the tournament at Michelob ULTRA Arena in Las Vegas.
Arizona's defense was on full display early as the Wildcats jumped out to a 11-0 lead within the first few minutes of the game. UA led 13-5 at the end of the first quarter having forced the seventh-seeded Cougars into 11 turnovers through the first 10 minutes.
Ultimately, the Wildcats would force WSU into 20 turnovers in the first half before it finished the game with 26 by the end of the night. Arizona's hallmark is its defense, so it was business as usual for the Wildcats.
"Well, that's our identity," senior forward Trinity Baptiste said of the UA dominance on defense. "That's who we are. You're going to see aggressive defense, traps. Just we're going to be ultra aggressive every time. That's Arizona's identity.
"So that's no surprise, honestly. We always play like that. We take a lot of pride in our defense.That's just something we do every day in practice.We emphasize a lot on our defense and that's just our identity."
Baptiste was the star of the show on offense as she put together an efficient performance for the Wildcats to finish with 17 points, making eight of her 11 shots, to go with six rebounds and a career-high six steals. The Virginia Tech transfer stepped up when the team needed her Thursday night with her motivation coming from Arizona's desire to win the conference tournament in her first season with the team.
"She said, 'coach, I'm not trying to go home,'" UA head coach Adia Barnes said of her standout post player. "This is Trinity's first PAC-12 Tournament. She was phenomenal. We got on her back and got going. She did everything, hitting threes, rebounding, brought us muscle inside.
"And you know what, I thought she did a really good job of was denying. She had six steals. So, phenomenal performance by her. One of the reasons why we won."
Arizona lost its last two games of the season, and Sunday's loss to rival Arizona State is one that hit the team particularly hard. It marked the second season in a row that the Wildcats lost to an opponent lower down in the rankings than them, and it certainly brought up some questions about just how successful UA can be this post season.
Finding a way to get back on track was at the forefront of the team's mindset this week and it showed early in the game.
"We know that we haven't been playing well the last couple of games," Baptiste said. "I want to start off with that. And our leaders stepped up this week in practice. Coach was on us harder. We just wanted to come out and win. We don't want to go home. Simple as that.
"So we are just taking it one game at a time, but that was the intensity from the start of the game. We know how we should be playing, but not to dwell on that. Now you're going to see a better Arizona team. That's what the intensity was in the beginning."
The Wildcats will now face third-seeded UCLA on Friday night at 9 p.m. MST in the semifinal round of the Pac-12 Tournament after the Bruins knocked off Washington on Thursday.
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