Arizona junior guard Aari McDonald broke the school record on Sunday scoring 44 points — no other player previously eclipsed the 40-point mark — to lead the Wildcats to an 83-58 win over No. 22 Texas at the Frank Erwin Center at Austin.
The victory over the Longhorns (1-2) snapped a 38-game losing streak for Arizona against teams ranked on the road. The last time it happened was at No. 19 UCLA 84-73 on Jan. 16, 2005. Dee Dee Wheeler had 19 points in that game, and the late Shawntinice Polk recorded 12 points and 11 rebounds.
UA women’s hoops wins on road vs. ranked opponents
2/7/93 at No. 23 Cal, 73-72 (OT)
1/6/01 at No. 21 Stanford, 68-65
1/16/05 at No. 19 UCLA, 84-73
11/17/19 at No. 22 Texas, 83-58
Overall record of 4-108 vs. ranked teams on road.
— Javier Morales (@JavierJMorales) November 18, 2019
In Sunday’s game at Texas, McDonald shot 14-of-18 from the field and made all 14 of her free throw attempts for Arizona, which improved to 4-0 and has the chance to be ranked for the first time in 15 years when the AP Top 25 is released tomorrow.
Arizona was last ranked on Dec. 27, 2004, when it was No. 25.
Adia Barnes’ program has won 10 straight games dating to last year’s six-win run to the WNIT title.
In Sunday’s win over Texas, Sophomore forward Cate Reese had 17 points and nine rebounds in her return to the state. She hails from Cypress, Texas.
That McDonald-Reese duo outscored Texas 61-58. They combined to shoot 20 of 29 (68.9 percent) from the field and 5 of 9 from 3-point range with 12 rebounds. Texas as a team shot 23 of 59 (38.9 percent) and 9 of 26 from beyond the arc.
🚨 NEW RECORD 🚨
A school record 44 POINTS for @AariMcdonald in @ArizonaWBB‘s DOMINANT road win over No. 22 Texas!#BearDown 💪😤 pic.twitter.com/gwlEOy6KyB
— Arizona Athletics (@AZATHLETICS) November 17, 2019
The Wildcats were dominant on the defensive end, forcing Texas to shoot 39 percent from the field. The Longhorns were forced into 21 turnovers. Arizona scored 21 points off of those turnovers. The Wildcats shot 50 percent from the field and committed just nine turnovers.
The Wildcats will be back home on Wednesday to face Prairie View A&M at 11 a.m. for Kids Day.
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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon.
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