Just days after losing its last meeting, No. 6 Arizona got the revenge it was seeking by beating in-state rival Arizona State, 62-58, at McKale Center on Sunday afternoon.
Despite a back-and-forth game that saw both teams dominate at times, the Wildcats were able to take over late in the game using their defense to hold off ASU’s offense.
Tied 57-57 with 1:33 to play, UA was able to hold the Sun Devils to just one point the rest of the game to earn the victory after losing to its rival by four points Friday in Tempe.
Led offensively by forward Cate Reese who had 17 points, the Wildcats (18-4, 8-4 Pac-12) had one of their better shooting games of the season going 58% from the field. However, free-throw shooting remains a concern as the team struggled by just shooting 52% from the line.
Like it did Friday, Arizona finished the game with 27 rebounds. Only this time the Sun Devils ended the day with only 22 rebounds instead of 42 with the Wildcats playing more aggressively in the revenge game.
Forward Koi Love gave Arizona that aggressive defensive spark that they needed. Love played true to her team role Sunday.
“Honestly, my team needs me. I can’t be in foul trouble. I can’t not be there. I can’t not have my defensive assignments. I can’t not get rebounds and not score the ball. I know my team needs me on both offense and defense so just being there for them. I’m just trying to win,” Love said.
The junior forward scored three of Arizona’s final five points in the team’s victory.
UA guard Madison Conner set a new career high in points for herself as she scored 16 points including going 2-for-4 from the three-point line, which led the team.
“Madi hit shots. They lost a little bit on some actions so we had her running off screens and she got some wide-open shots. I think that Maddie has a really quick trigger and was able to come in off the bench and hit shots so she really spread the floor and I thought that Maddie for a while carried us,” UA head coach Adia Barnes said.
Conner was most important in the first half when she helped the Wildcats dig out of a hole when the Sun Devils (12-9, 4-4 Pac-12) took an early lead in the first quarter. Conner hit her first 3-pointer with 34 seconds to play in the first quarter and followed that up with seven points in the second quarter.
“It definitely would have been nice to win there on Friday but we definitely had revenge out for them so we just came out here and took care of business. Little closer than expected but we came out here and fought,” Conner said.
She scored two of UA’s four baskets in the fourth quarter.
“It is definitely a confidence booster when your teammates find you and tell you to keep shooting the ball. Before, I was just trying to get my shot but now I am showing that I have different aspects of my game so just showing that and my teammates keep finding me, that really helps,” Conner said.
The Wildcats notably were able to limit the effectiveness of ASU guard Jade Loville who had 27 points against Arizona on Friday but was held to only 8 points in Sunday’s game thanks in large part to the defense of UA forward Sam Thomas.
“We were doing a lot of work early on Jade not letting her catch much. Making her really hard to get the ball. At ASU on Friday she had a ton of isolations. We tried to crowd her and trap her in certain situations which I thought wore her down a little bit,” Barnes said.
Arizona now shifts its focus to going on the road to play Washington on Friday.
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