The Arizona women’s basketball team picked up its second win of the season, defeating the University of California, Irvine 75-61.

Guard Mickayla Perdue led the Wildcats with a stellar performance, ending the game with 31 points and a rebound while playing the whole 40 minutes.

“Whether it’s a free throw, a layup, whatever it is, once I see that first one go in, I think that kind of boosts me a little bit,” Perdue said.

The second leading scorer for Arizona was graduate student Noelani Cornfield, as she secured 14 points to go along with 12 assists in 38 minutes of play. Cornfield dished out the most assists for an Arizona player since Aari McDonald’s 14 in 2019.

“That’s the most assists in a game since Aari [McDonald]. I mean, that’s not easy to do. I’ve been watching her do it for over a year, and I’m fortunate to be her coach, and I just get to sit on the sideline and look at our staff and be like, holy cow, did you see that?” said Arizona head coach Becky Burke. “I mean, that last one, to Nora, […] there’s a reason she was my first call when I got this job. I’ll put it that way. Super happy to be her coach, proud of her, and she’s so, so, so special.”

Freshman Daniah Trammell also had a good game as her night ended with 13 points and two rebounds.

For UC Irvine, junior guard Hunter Hernandez led the team in scoring, ending the night with 23 points, eight rebounds and an assist. Senior guard Jada Wynn also had a good game for the Anteaters, as she had 12 points to go with nine boards and an assist.

The first quarter saw UC Irvine jump out to a 15-10 lead. The Anteaters shot 4-for-12 from the field in the first quarter, however were perfect from the free throw line, shooting 6-for-6. Arizona struggled with 3-pointers in the beginning quarter, going 0-for-7. The Wildcats have not made a shot from beyond the arc in the first quarter for the first two games of the season.

The Wildcats came out dominating the Anteaters in the second quarter, scoring 31 points on 9-for-21 shooting, but shot four 3-pointers. Defensively, Arizona held the Anteaters to 17 points.

“We want improvement from exhibition one to exhibition two. We want improvement to game one and to game two, and that’s what we’re seeing. I just hope it’s a steady increment of improvement all season, and I think it will be if they [the team] keeps working. We’re really proud, especially of these two, but our whole staff, our players and our program. Just our 2-0 [record] feels really good,” Burke said.

Arizona cooled down in the third quarter but kept its foot on the pedal, outscoring the Anteaters 19-13. The Wildcats drew multiple offensive fouls on the route to forcing seven Anteater turnovers in the third.

Arizona went up by as many as 21 points before ultimately winning by 14.

“When we play solid defense and get rebounds, we can push the tempo and play with more rhythm. Lani’s [Cornfield] been leading that, and when others join in, we move faster and score more in transition. Our offense starts with our defense — we guarded really well tonight and could’ve held them in the 50s if not for all the free throws, but overall, our defense fueled our offense,” Burke said.

Follow the Daily Wildcat on Instagram and Twitter/X