After a national title game appearance, No. 22 Arizona (1-0) was ready to open its season against CSUN (0-1) with a revamped as the team added three transfers during the off-season.
The Wildcats got off to a slow start in the first quarter and shot 33 percent from the field. Arizona's offense got into a rhythm and rolled CSUN 87-44 to start the season with a win from that point on.
"It's great to have our first game that actually counts. Our fans are amazing. The energy is electric. We didn't play great, but we had some good moments and also I rotated the whole team.
"So we played a lot of people, but I knew coming into this game I wanted to play about people and just give different minutes, look at different lineups, put people in different positions to be successful. And I think we saw some good things, but we also saw we have to work on a lot of things," said coach Adia Barnes
Once Arizona found its footing, the Wildcats shot 52 percent from the field and went 8 for 19 from the 3-point line, with senior forward Sam Thomas leading the way by going 3 for 5 from deep.
Thomas finished the night with 13 points and one rebound while shooting 71 percent from the field in 17 minutes of action.
"I think my teammates just found me and I mean usually for myself; if I hit the first one, I feel pretty confident about the rest. So hitting that first little two, I felt really good and then my teammates found me in transition. It was with the flow of the game, so they were able to find me and I got my shot off," Thomas said about her ability to get her shot going early.
Arizona dominated the paint against CSUN and outscored the Matadors 46 to 18 and 22 to 2 in second-chance points.
Leading the way in the paint for the Wildcats was freshman forward Aaronette Vonleh, who, in her first regular-season college game, scored 14 points while going 7 for 8 from the field and collected six rebounds in 13 minutes.
"I would say honestly that genetics is a big part of it. I've just always been naturally muscular and strong. And that definitely helps a lot with balance because I can power up and stay on my feet and not be on the floor a lot," said Vonleh in the postgame press conference.
Although the Wildcats won running away with the game and Arizona's defense held CSUN to 37 percent shooting from the field, the Matadors went 4 for 9 from the 3-point line.
"We have to guard the ball better. So we talk about guarding our yard. So there's an area that you have to guard and if the basket is here, you can allow straight line drives. And that's not what we do. And we were doing that a lot today. And we talked a lot before the game. One of our goals was being disciplined on defense. So discipline on defense isn't going for reach-in-fouls like we're doing and bailing them out and it's not going for reaches because when you go reach, you get off balance, you get beat.
"So that led to a lot of straight line drives and then rotation. So that's not what we do. You'll see as we progress over the year, we won't do that a lot. But if you look at our starting lineup, we don't give those up in our starting lineup. It's just when we get into our rotations, where it's a little bit more challenging," said Barnes on how the defense played.
The level of competition will rise for Arizona as it has No. 6 Louisville, who is opening up its season against the Wildcats in a neutral site game in Sioux Falls (S.D.) at 2:30 p.m. MST on ESPNU.
"I think it's going to be a really good game. But right now, we feel we're not playing our best, but we're at the beginning of the season. We've never played our best and neither is anybody in the country. N.C. State, South Carolina. I don't think anybody will say, "oh, we're at our best now." It's just the beginning of the process. So we're excited to get tested early," said Barnes on the upcoming game against Louisville.
> DISCUSS the article with other Arizona fans Inside McKale
> WATCH the latest videos from GOAZCATS.com and subscribe to our YouTube channel
> FOLLOW us on Twitter (@goazcatscom, @MattGOAZCATS, @THutch1995, @AverieKlonowski)
> FOLLOW us on Instagram (@goazcats)
> LIKE us on Facebook
> SUBSCRIBE for all the latest Arizona Wildcats team and recruiting news (subscribe now)
