Arizona hit a bump in the road as they lost their first game of the season on Friday, Jan. 1 against Stanford 81-54. and fell to a 7-1 record on the season. Stanford had this game in control in the first half when they went into the locker rooms with a 44-20 lead.

“It was a bad day for us, we played very bad,” head coach Adia Barnes said.

The Wildcats were led by Sam Thomas with 14 points on 5-11 shooting from the field and 4-9 from the three. The Wildcats could not get it going from the field shooting 26%.

Thomas looked like one of the best players on the court tonight. Not counting what she did on the offensive side of the ball, she looked strong on defense too, recording five rebounds with a steal and a block. She altered many shots when the offensive player looked to attack against her.

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“I was trying to chip away at it little by little,” Thomas said. “It’s great to be able to score a lot against Stanford because they do try and bait you to take a lot of different shots that you’re not used to.”

Rebounds

The Wildcats were dominated on the board 51-32. The difference in the rebounds was how the Wildcats shot the ball. Stanford shot the ball at an impressive 46% from the field. 

“They made us do things that we aren’t good at,” Barnes said. “Just forced us to do uncomfortable things.”

Turnovers

The Wildcats did, however, win the turnover battle as they forced Stanford into 16 turnovers as the Wildcats only had nine. The problem that killed Arizona was that they only had seven assists with nine turnovers.

The Arizona Wildcats go into their next game on Jan. 3 hosting California at 12 p.m. MST.

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