And just like that, Arizona’s season came to an end with a 71-69 loss to NAU in the first round of the WBIT.
Second time was not a charm
On Nov. 20, Arizona and Northern Arizona met in Flagstaff and the Wildcats were without their starting point guard Jada Williams and forward Breya Cunningham saw more bench than floor due to foul trouble. The Lumberjacks beat the Wildcats 92-75.
Much like that early-season matchup, Arizona was once again without Williams as she continues to rehab a foot injury that has plagued her most of the season.
While the game was much closer this time, with the two teams changing leads throughout the game, a different venue didn’t change the final outcome in the second matchup of the Wildcats and the Lumberjacks.
“They out-hustled us for 50-50 balls. And those things are unacceptable, and you’re not going to win games like that,” Arizona coach Adia Barnes said.
Arizona guard Skylar Jones added, “I would say not all of us came out with that same intensity.”
NAU moves on and will travel to Nashville, Tenn., to face Belmont in the second round of the WBIT.
What is the WBIT?
The National Women’s Invitation Tournament was started in 2024 and is the main postseason option for teams that did not make the NCAA Tournament. The WBIT is affiliated with the NCAA while the WNIT is not. Both are pay-to-play tournaments.
The WNIT provides revenue sharing with the host school but the NCAA takes all ticket sales revenue from the WBIT. The host school keeps concessions and parking revenue.
The first four out of the NCAA tournament get the top four seeds. The top eight schools are designated hosts for the first two rounds of the tournament. Only 16 teams get seeds while the other 16 teams are placed as close to home as possible which is why NAU traveled to Arizona for its first-round game.
Final possession chaos
With NAU leading 71-69 Arizona had a chance to tie or win the game with a little more than five seconds left, but the Wildcats didn’t get a shot off.
Jones, who was Arizona’s leading scorer with 21 points, was left holding the ball as the buzzer sounded.
Everyone inside McKale was baffled and shocked with the way the game ended.
Barnes set up the final play to either go inside to Isis Beh or kick the ball out to one of the guards.
On the play, Barnes said, “It was going to be a quick shot for a double stagger.”
“We knew Isis would be open for a right-handed layup and, if not, the guard at the top would be open. It’s hard in the moment to recognize, but Sky was open and she’s a really good 3-point shooter, but I think she felt there wasn’t time up top.
“My philosophy as a coach is that it never comes down to the last play. If you look at it, it’s never the last play that defines winning and losing, because if we would have made a shot, it’s a very hard shot. I think it comes down to the toughness and the lack of communication from the beginning of the game. It comes down to the 13 offensive rebounds in the first half. It comes down to the lack of sprinting back and transition defense. It comes down to those little things that they accumulate.”
Jones mentioned in a previous press conference that she was in some pain. Despite the pain, she still suited up and gave her all for the team.
“I didn’t really want to play, but I still was like, ‘If I’m gonna play, I’m going hard,'” Jones said. “I’m at least trying. And I feel like I did that. I feel like they (Beh and Cunningham) did that, too. I’m not gonna discount nobody else’s effort, but the three people up here, we tried.”
Jones, Beh and Cunningham joined coach Barnes in the post-game press conference.
Isis Beh’s last game in McKale
In her last game in McKale Center, Beh left it all on the court. She had a team-high six assists and added five rebounds, one block and four steals to her final stats.
As the heart of the team, Beh will be missed by Arizona and her fans.
When asked what she will miss the most, Beh said, “I’ll remember the fans most, they showed a lot of love.”
“Isis brought a lot to this team,” Cunningham reflected. “Her being one of our only fifth-years with all the experience, she is kind of a mentor for a lot of us young players. She set a standard for us in some ways in practice and in games. I think how she played hard every game so just I think missing that piece next year is going to be hard for us. It’s going to have to be a gap we are going to have to fill.”
Jones added, “She’s just a good person overall like she is like our Mom. She’s gonna to let us know when we right or wrong so its good to have somebody like that.”
Barnes’ final thoughts
Reflecting on the season after the loss to NAU, Barnes was open and honest with her assessment.
“Going into this WBIT, I did not think we were going to win this WBIT.” Barnes said. ” I felt very different going into WNIT in 2019. We wanted to win it. We wanted to play. We did not want to play here. We were discouraged from not being in the NCAA Tournament.”
Barnes continued, “You’re not going to change like who someone is. You’re not going to change people. People are who they are. I think you can’t coach and motivate people. Not everybody, but I think you can coach them or motivate, I think that going back to what we did years ago, you know we need to have a dog mentality, find dogs that really want it, fierce competitors that step on the floor and they are dogs like that’s what we had when we were really good. I think we’ve gone away from that a lot and then it’s hard to win with young players and I realize that.”
“I think that I really kept a young team this year and it’s hard to win with a young team. We needed more experience last year with (Helena) Pueyo and Esmery (Martinez) and we weren’t great but last year we were good though but I think you need veteran leaders, veteran leaders that want to go play pro, that want to go get better, that want to do skill work not that you have to extract those things.
“We are going to go find that and add the right pieces to be successful.”
With the added challenge of NIL and the transfer portal, the state of college athletics is very different from even a few years ago.
Barnes gave her thoughts on the new NIL and portal model.
‘You need to get players that will help you win now,” she said. “The unfortunately thing with the way our model is, which I don’t like the model, it’s going to kill high schools, it’s going to kill high school women’s basketball players because people aren’t going to recruit them they are going to get the best kids they can with the most money they can and they’re going to win with those kids.
“I think that model is the way it is so you have to pivot and change to be successful or you get left behind.”
Barnes added, “It’s a different mentality than like we had and so that’s the reality so you have to get the players you want to coach that are going to be a mirror of what you were and I think we are going to do that.”
The offseason is going to be an interesting time for Arizona women’s basketball with player movement and the added unknown regarding Barnes’ contract extension.
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