After dropping two of its last three games, No. 10 Arizona regained momentum against unranked Utah winning Friday night’s game at McKale Center, 76-64.

UA forward Sam Thomas led the team in scoring with 25 points and tied her previous season high (14 points) in the first half alone. Thomas also led the team in 3-pointers made with six, which ties her career high. For of her efforts, Thomas was awarded with player of the game honors.

“Yeah, I think in practice just been working on a lot of shots,” Thomas said. “We’ve been focusing on just shooting a bunch of game-like shots. Coming off staggers, kicking to the corner. After I hit my first two, my confidence was up and I was just able to keep going.

“My teammates kept finding me, and they were intentionally looking for me so I think that’s what really helped.”

The Wildcats (13-2, 3-2 Pac-12) started off slow shooting only 5 for 15 in the first quarter. They quickly turned it around by the second quarter when they forced Utah into 10 turnovers and shot 10 for 14 from the field. UA guard Helena Pueyo was responsible for causing half of Utah’s turnovers as she had five first-half steals for the Wildcats.

“We knew how great Utah was offensively so we knew we couldn’t let them shoot 50% the whole game or else they would blow us out by like 30,” Thomas said. “So we just knew we had to lock them down, play intense, play our Arizona defense and try to throw different defenses at them. I think that’s what really helped.”

The Wildcats ended the first half with a 19-4 run giving them a solid cushion to work with for the rest of the game, and it would be needed.

UA struggled with its shooting once the second half started, going only a mere 9 for 23 from the field and making only one 3-point shot the entire half.

The Wildcats did a good job of holding onto the ball only committing 10 turnovers for the game. The Utes (9-5, 0-2 Pac-12) entered the matchup as the top-scoring team in the Pac-12 averaging nearly 85 points. Meanwhile, the Wildcats entered the night as the top defensive team in the league giving up just over 53 points per game this season.

UA was able to hold Utah to the fewest amount of points it has scored all season thanks in part to the strong defensive play of UA forward Lauren Ware and a different approach on that end of the floor.

“That press is something we’ve been working on, it’s new for us,” Ware said. “I think we were pretty confident in it since we have been working on it all this week. And, I don’t think they were really prepared for it, so when we knew that they didn’t really know how to defend it, Adia [Barnes] just kept pressuring us to keep staying up on the ball. We turned them over a lot, which started our offense and made it easier for us.”

Despite only scoring seven points, Ware was the backbone of the team’s defense Friday night allowing the Wildcats to create fast breaks that helped them score 21 points off turnovers in the win.

“I thought if we didn’t have the diamond press tonight, we don’t win this game,” UA head coach Adia Barnes said. “This was something we’ve been working on and didn’t show it until today. It actually was very effective. I think we probably got nine points out of it. Without that, I don’t know if we win the game. So, I think we did a good job of turning them over.”

Using an eleven-player rotation, the Wildcats allowed their players some moments to shine with UA forward Koi Love leading the bench with eight points in 13 minutes of action.

“If you tell Koi exactly what you want she’s gonna go do it,” Barnes said. “So I thought she did a tremendous job of resetting herself and going back in and doing what we need and being a huge spark.”

The Wildcats have a quick turnaround as their next game is at home against Colorado at McKale Center on Sunday afternoon to conclude their short home stand.

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