Arizona women’s basketball blows out CSU Bakersfield

Michael Smith

December 11, 2024

University of Arizona women’s basketball player Paulina Paris plays defense while a California State University, Bakersfield women’s basketball player handles the ball on Dec. 10 in McKale Center. Paris was one of three Wildcats to score double figures, putting up 11 points.

The University of Arizona women’s basketball team dominated California State University, Bakersfield 76-39 on Tuesday, Dec. 10 at 6 p.m. in McKale Center. With this win, the Wildcats found a way to bounce back into the win column and improve their record to 8-4, bouncing back from a 69-66 loss to GCU.

Breya Cunningham and Skylar Jones both led the team in scoring with 13 points apiece. Both players only missed one shot from the field, as Cunningham shot 6-for-7 and Jones shot 5-for-6. Katarina Kneževic, a freshman forward from Serbia, led defensively, grabbing five rebounds. Kneževic also scored a career-high 9 points hitting 3-for-5 from beyond the arc in 25 minutes on the court.

Arizona started off hot against the Roadrunners, jumping out to a 13-7 lead after a 3-pointer made by Jones. Cunningham came out strong offensively, scoring more than half of Arizona’s points going into an early timeout. The Wildcats held CSU Bakersfield to shoot only 30.8% from the field in the first quarter.

Arizona continued to put pressure on CSU Bakersfield in the second period. Jones dropped 8 points in the quarter and finished with 11 points and two assists in the first half.

“[Jones] brought really good energy and what I love is she looked to score […]. We are better when she gets the ball and she’s a threat,” head coach Adia Barnes said post-game.

Going into the halftime break, Arizona led 44-25 while shooting an efficient 57% from the floor as a team. The Wildcats also had a positive assist to turnover ratio, recording 11 assists and five turnovers. The Wildcats’ defense forced CSU Bakersfield to turn the ball over 13 times, capitalizing on those mistakes to score 17 points off the possessions.

Both programs came out slow to start the second half, with Arizona missing its first four shots and CSU Bakersfield going on a three-minute scoring drought.

However, the Wildcats switched to a zone defense and implemented a full-court trap, which enabled them to transition from defense to offense and score points, eventually leading Arizona to close the quarter on a 13-0 scoring run.

The Wildcats continued to perform strongly, opening the final period on a 6-0 scoring run and forcing the Roadrunners to turn the ball over three times in the following two minutes. Later in the quarter, Cunningham went on a 6-0 scoring run herself which included a jumper that extended the Arizona lead to 39 points to seal the victory.

“As a team, this [assist to turnover ratio] has to improve, we are going to work on fundamentals daily,” Barnes said.

Arizona went on to win 76-39, recording a season-low of just 10 turnovers and nine fouls committed. The team had 18 assists, one assist shy of a season-high. For the first time this year, the Wildcats had a positive assist-to-turnover ratio of 18 to 10.

“Happy we got back in the W column […]. Thought we did a better job executing and sharing the ball, we moved the ball better,” Barnes said.