On Sunday, head coach Adia Barnes and the Wildcats got a taste of what a contending team looks like as they were outmatched and overrun by the No.5 Oregon Ducks 93-60 in Eugene.
The Ducks wasted no time taking it to the visitors, jumping out to a commanding 31-4 lead after the first quarter.
Oregon and its high-powered offense put on a display that left the usually defensively sound Wildcats reeling. They never seemed to find an answer to the Ducks’ superstars Sabrina Ionescu and Satou Sabally, who kept the statistician busy all game as they combined to score 46 points while Ionescu notched her 16th triple double of her career, adding to her NCAA all-time record.
Arizona had as much trouble scoring as they did stopping Oregon from doing so. Aari McDonald had 20 points on 16 shots, while freshman Cate Reese pitched in 16 points herself, but the rest of Arizona’s starters only managed to muster nine points between them, rendering Arizona one dimensional as they relied on McDonald to carry the scoring and distribution load all afternoon.
For the Wildcats, the blowout loss comes as their third in as many games, as they have faced three top-10 teams in just two weekends. For a team that aspires to be a mainstay on the top-half of the conference, the past couple of weeks has been a wakeup call.
Luckily for Barnes and her team, Arizona does not face off against the Oregon schools again until early March. The Wildcats don’t face another ranked opponent until they travel up to Tempe, Ariz., to take on ASU on Feb. 1. They have another couple of games of unranked teams until Arizona makes their Bay Area trip three weeks after.
Arizona will look to get back on track when they host the L.A. schools next weekend in McKale.
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