A deeper look into Arizona’s 84-48 victory over Chicago State, a homecoming game for Skylar Jones at Chicago on Saturday afternoon:
Freshmen & newcomer Dew highly productive
Freshmen Lauryn Swann, Katarina Knezevic, and Mailien Rolf and redshirt sophomore Montaya Dew (who is playing in college for the first time) were instrumental in the rout.
They combined for 31 points and 26 rebounds. The rebound total was nearly more than Chicago State (28 rebounds) had as a team.
Swann continued her impressive play following Tuesday’s 75-66 win over UNLV at McKale Center. She had 19 points, all in the second half, against the Rebels. On Saturday, she led the Wildcats with 10 points in the first half when they built a 52-22 lead.
Rolf, a 5-foot-10-inch guard from Germany, led the Wildcats with eight rebounds in 19 minutes off the bench.
Everyone got playing time
Arizona coach Adia Barnes took advantage of the lopsided score to play as many of her players as possible to work on combinations and give them more experience — what coaches do during the non-conference portion of the schedule.
Ten players played double-digit minutes and Pepperdine transfer Jorynn Ross was almost there with nine minutes.
Only Dew (23 minutes), Jones (21) and Swann (20) played at least 20 minutes.
Dew leading the Wildcats in minutes played is significant inasmuch as she had not played competitively for almost two years being an early entrant in 2022-23 and sitting out last season with a knee injury.
Dew also played 25 minutes off the bench against UNLV, the most minutes for a reserve in the game.
3-POINT SHOOTING CONCERNS
Arizona’s area of opportunity in the Chicago State game was its shooting beyond the arc.
Swann did her part making 2 of 4 from that range and Paulina Paris and Rolf made their only attempt.
The rest were a combined 1of 16 (6.3 percent). Jada Williams and Jones were each 0 of 4.
Arizona is shooting 29.7 percent from 3-point range in its first five games this season.
Williams has tried the most 3-pointers so far — 21 — and has made only three of them (14.3 percent). She started the season 0 of 11 from beyond the arc.
Silver-lining: Arizona is shooting 43.4 percent from the field overall, which means they are converting high-percentage shots.
ARIZONA’S DEFENSE IS STIFLING, AGAIN
Par for the course with Barnes-coached teams — the defense is the difference.
Arizona had 11 steals against Chicago State, which was out of sync with its 20 turnovers that led to 24 points for the Wildcats.
Chicago State shot 27 percent (17 of 63) from the field and 20 percent (3 of 15) from 3-point range.
Jones’ four steals led the team. She has a team-high 10 steals to this point of the season with Breya Cunningham next at nine.
Cunningham also leads the Wildcats with 10 blocked shots in addition to her team-best 13.4 points and 8.2 rebounds a game.
An important stat for her — she has yet to foul out. She had four fouls against Chicago State but led the Wildcats with 14 points.
Next up: Arizona (5-0) travels to Flagstaff to play NAU on Wednesday at 6 p.m.
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