Preview:
Fresh off an impressive and challenging win over ASU, we travel to the league's perennial doormat, Arizona. Except they are no one's doormat any more. Coach Adia Barnes has had 2 1/2 years to recruit and coach her team into a vastly improved group. Prior to that, she helped coach Kelsey Plum at Washington, and thus she has been involved in a number of victories over Tara. Even before her arrival, we lost at Arizona in 2015--breaking a very long win streak. This year, Massey ranks 13-2 Arizona at 36--ahead of Cal, UCLA, and USC--and while the strength of opposition has not really been strong, they have been winning by a 19.5 point margin. Oh--they also knocked off ASU with suffocating defense.
Arizona is led statistically by Aari McDonald who is averaging 26 ppg. She is a 5'7" redshirt sophomore guard who followed Adia Barnes from Washington where as a freshman she played behind Plum and made the Pac 12 all-freshman team. She is hitting 47% of her shots and they are not mostly from three point range, where she shoots 31%. Arizona has started the same 5 in all 15 of their games so far. Starting guard Lucia Alonso is hitting 39% of her treys and has a 2:1 assist/turnover ratio. Cate Reese, a 6'2" freshman from the Ogumike's home town of Cypress Texas is their second leading scorer at 12 points and 8 rebounds per game.
Overview:
A well rounded offensive effort and an even better defensive effort crushed Arizona. A 19-0 run to end the first half expanded a comfortable lead to a chasm.
Character of the game:
Arizona played reasonable defense at times, but we played a nearly perfect offensive first half. That phenomenal 19 point run to close out the half started with two treys, a jumper, and another trey by Carrington--so she single handedly contributed 11 of the 19. Williams hit a trey, then Smith, then Jerome a layup on a fast break feed from Lacie. Just like that the much vaunted Arizona team looked like the Arizona team of yesteryear. We went into the half up 44-16. Quite amazing that we held the nation's top scorer to 9 points in the half and the rest of her team to 7. Arizona had 4 points in the 2nd quarter
Our offense slowed a little in the 3rd quarter, but we still held Arizona to 11 points and expanded the lead. The fourth quarter saw extended playing time for Coffee, Wilson, Lexie, and even Brewer and Moschkau. The bench was not able to win the 4th quarter but it was a great opportunity to rest our overworked starters and see Lexie get the rust off.
Performances:
Defensively, we kept McDonald to 17 points which is well under her average--but more important we shut down the team around her. Alanna got most of her career record 7 blocks on McDonald, who was 6/22. No other wildcat got double digits. Their outstanding freshman forward Reese, for example, was 1/9.
Offensively, the big three all did exceptionally well. Smith with 20, Carrington with 19, Williams with 13. Williams was 3/3 from three point range--it was good to see her return to her early season form.
Williams also was awesome at point, with 7 assists to 0 turnovers.
Alanna had 14 rebounds and those 7 blocks--all in the first half--coming three blocks short of a triple double.
I was most excited, though, to see Lexie shake off the rust and play a very good game. She played 14 minutes and scored 8 points, including 2/2 from three point range and 5 rebounds. She did accumulate 4 fouls in those 14 minutes--mostly trying to stop McDonald--so let's hope that is a bit of rust coming off and not a trend.
As a team we shot 44% and 42% from 3, including 13 made treys. Arizona was held to 27%. We were 9/10 on freethrows which is a trend we are overjoyed to continue. We had 30 points in the paint to their 18. My favorite stat of all: 22 bench points to their 4.
Conclusion:
We've got ourselves a very good team this year, and the rehabilitation of Lexie just made it better. The announcers again said that Tara hopes to get Maya back "very soon." I hope they are right. The next four games, while dangerous, are the "soft" part of our schedule, but after that it is a juggernaut of six games that will make or break our Pac 12 season--with 2 games against Cal, the two Oregon schools, and the road trip to LA all in a row. We will need Dodson before then.
But for today, there are nothing but smiles for an outstanding team performance, and so many positive signs for our future.
Fresh off an impressive and challenging win over ASU, we travel to the league's perennial doormat, Arizona. Except they are no one's doormat any more. Coach Adia Barnes has had 2 1/2 years to recruit and coach her team into a vastly improved group. Prior to that, she helped coach Kelsey Plum at Washington, and thus she has been involved in a number of victories over Tara. Even before her arrival, we lost at Arizona in 2015--breaking a very long win streak. This year, Massey ranks 13-2 Arizona at 36--ahead of Cal, UCLA, and USC--and while the strength of opposition has not really been strong, they have been winning by a 19.5 point margin. Oh--they also knocked off ASU with suffocating defense.
Arizona is led statistically by Aari McDonald who is averaging 26 ppg. She is a 5'7" redshirt sophomore guard who followed Adia Barnes from Washington where as a freshman she played behind Plum and made the Pac 12 all-freshman team. She is hitting 47% of her shots and they are not mostly from three point range, where she shoots 31%. Arizona has started the same 5 in all 15 of their games so far. Starting guard Lucia Alonso is hitting 39% of her treys and has a 2:1 assist/turnover ratio. Cate Reese, a 6'2" freshman from the Ogumike's home town of Cypress Texas is their second leading scorer at 12 points and 8 rebounds per game.
Overview:
A well rounded offensive effort and an even better defensive effort crushed Arizona. A 19-0 run to end the first half expanded a comfortable lead to a chasm.
Character of the game:
Arizona played reasonable defense at times, but we played a nearly perfect offensive first half. That phenomenal 19 point run to close out the half started with two treys, a jumper, and another trey by Carrington--so she single handedly contributed 11 of the 19. Williams hit a trey, then Smith, then Jerome a layup on a fast break feed from Lacie. Just like that the much vaunted Arizona team looked like the Arizona team of yesteryear. We went into the half up 44-16. Quite amazing that we held the nation's top scorer to 9 points in the half and the rest of her team to 7. Arizona had 4 points in the 2nd quarter
Our offense slowed a little in the 3rd quarter, but we still held Arizona to 11 points and expanded the lead. The fourth quarter saw extended playing time for Coffee, Wilson, Lexie, and even Brewer and Moschkau. The bench was not able to win the 4th quarter but it was a great opportunity to rest our overworked starters and see Lexie get the rust off.
Performances:
Defensively, we kept McDonald to 17 points which is well under her average--but more important we shut down the team around her. Alanna got most of her career record 7 blocks on McDonald, who was 6/22. No other wildcat got double digits. Their outstanding freshman forward Reese, for example, was 1/9.
Offensively, the big three all did exceptionally well. Smith with 20, Carrington with 19, Williams with 13. Williams was 3/3 from three point range--it was good to see her return to her early season form.
Williams also was awesome at point, with 7 assists to 0 turnovers.
Alanna had 14 rebounds and those 7 blocks--all in the first half--coming three blocks short of a triple double.
I was most excited, though, to see Lexie shake off the rust and play a very good game. She played 14 minutes and scored 8 points, including 2/2 from three point range and 5 rebounds. She did accumulate 4 fouls in those 14 minutes--mostly trying to stop McDonald--so let's hope that is a bit of rust coming off and not a trend.
As a team we shot 44% and 42% from 3, including 13 made treys. Arizona was held to 27%. We were 9/10 on freethrows which is a trend we are overjoyed to continue. We had 30 points in the paint to their 18. My favorite stat of all: 22 bench points to their 4.
Conclusion:
We've got ourselves a very good team this year, and the rehabilitation of Lexie just made it better. The announcers again said that Tara hopes to get Maya back "very soon." I hope they are right. The next four games, while dangerous, are the "soft" part of our schedule, but after that it is a juggernaut of six games that will make or break our Pac 12 season--with 2 games against Cal, the two Oregon schools, and the road trip to LA all in a row. We will need Dodson before then.
But for today, there are nothing but smiles for an outstanding team performance, and so many positive signs for our future.
