After dropping two straight games, Arizona had another tall task ahead of it as they hosted No. 2 Oregon. Arizona ultimately fell 71-64 in a hard-fought game at the McKale Center.
Arizona had a near perfect first quarter when they led 20-18. In the second quarter alone, they had just 6 points and 7 turnovers and got held scoreless in the final 4:46 of the first half.
“The second quarter was definitely a backbreaker for us, because every other quarter we were even or outscored them,” Adia Barnes said.
Throughout the second half, Arizona went on plenty of runs to keep the game within single digits. Sophomore Aari McDonald finished with 25 points on 8-17 shooting, along with 5 rebounds and 2 assists.
Two made free throws by Sam Thomas cut the Arizona deficit to 67-64, making it a one-possession game with 38.8 seconds remaining. On Oregon’s next possession, Arizona’s Amari Carter fouled last year’s National Player of the Year Sabrina Ionescu, which sent her to the free throw line where she hit two free throws to make it a two-possession game. Ionescu ended up with a triple-double, getting 17 points on 5-12 shooting, 10 rebounds and 10 assists.
“We didn’t have a lot of time left and we weren’t able to get stops,” Barnes said. “Aari [McDonald] couldn’t be on the ball because she had four fouls, and we were going to go for a steal.”
Throughout the game, Oregon’s size and strength in the paint on both ends was too much for the Wildcats to handle. The Ducks outrebounded Arizona 39-23 and had 12 total offensive rebounds to Arizona’s 18 defensive rebounds. Oregon also doubled the total points in the paint 36-18.
“The area we have to improve in is rebounding,” said Barnes. “We are going to work on it every day, every single day, because that’s my job to improve on what we need to do to win.”
Arizona heads to Pullman to face Washington State Friday night, and heads to Seattle on Sunday afternoon to face Washington. This time around, Arizona hopes to get back Helena Pueyo, who missed Sunday’s game after leaving Friday’s game against Oregon State with an ankle sprain.
