The first regular season game of the Becky Burke era at Arizona ended in a 62-59 hard-fought win over the UC Riverside Highlanders.
While the Wildcats won their last exhibition game, Thursday night’s win over the Highlanders in McKale marks Burke’s first official win since taking over as Arizona’s head coach.
On the win, Burke said, “We’re 1-and-0. That was the goal at the start of the game, obviously. Come out after 40 minutes, and be on top on the scoreboard. We really know how to make it interesting, so I need to correct and fix some things down the stretch and make sure we don’t make it quite as interesting as we did. But at the end of the day, they found a way to win”.
Noelani Cornfield, Sumayah Sugapong, Mireia Jurado, Molly Ladwig and Daniah Trammell started in the exhibition win last Thursday night.
In the season opener, the Wildcats went with the “why fix what isn’t broken?” theory, keeping the same starting five against the Highlanders.
The Wildcats’ coaching staff, who continue to make adjustments to get the best lineup on the floor for each in game situation were tested by UC Riverside as the Highlanders hung tough all game against a scrappy Arizona defense.
At the first media timeout, UC Riverside led Arizona 8-3 with 4:36 left in the first quarter.
Arizona tied it at 10 with 1:50 left in the first quarter after Trammell hit a two in the paint.
Achol Magot, who subbed in for Trammel, hooked elbows with UC Riversides Bria Shine under the Arizona basket. Chaos ensued as a foul was called on Shine, but there was action after the whistle. The referees reviewed the play to see if the foul would be escalated to a flagrant. After review, the call remained a common foul on Shine.
Mickayla Perdue hit a short jumper as the buzzer sounded and the Wildcats led 14-12 at the end of the first quarter.
Arizona’s defense, which was locked in all game, caused seven turnovers in the first quarter and ended the night with a total of 23 turnovers.
UC Riverside outscored Arizona 13-9 in the second quarter taking a 25-23 lead into halftime.
Coming out of halftime, the Wildcats could have been complacent but they hit the floor in the second half re-energized.
“We saw a lot of zone in the first half, which we haven’t played against so far this year in either of our exhibitions, and obviously just until this game,” Burke said. “So another thing where it’s like first time you’re seeing it as a group and you’re just getting more comfortable and more confident.
“They were kind of sitting on some of our spots that we wanted to capitalize on in our zone offense in the first half, so we went to more of a ball screen continuity in the second half, which was much, much better for us. So they were really coachable. Really coachable. They adjusted.”
After Sugapong hit a three putting Arizona up 39-33 with 5:13 left in the third quarter, UC Riverside called a timeout. The McKale crowd erupted.
At the end of the third quarter, Arizona increased their lead to seven and led the Highlanders 46-37.
UC Riverside kept battling and with Arizona leading 54-50, Perdue was called for a hooking foul while cutting toward the basket giving the ball back to the Highlanders.
A foul at the other end gave UC Riverside two free throws. They hit both and the Highlanders pulled to within two with 3:23 left in the game.
With 1:46 left in the game, UC Riverside hit a 3-pointer to tie it at 58.
Arizona went down the court and Cornfield hit a jumper putting Arizona up by two at 60-58 with a minute to go.
That would be Cornfield’s last basket of the game as she committed her fifth foul with 34.6 seconds to go in the game.
The McKale crowd, which had been standing since UC Riverside pulled to within two, made themselves heard, loudly, as UC Riverside’s Kaylani Polk shot free throws.
Polk hit one of two and Arizona held a one point lead and with 25.6 seconds to go.
With Arizona leading by one with 11.3 seconds to go, Trammell couldn’t get control of a pass and a held ball was called. The possession arrow went to UC Riverside.
“Like, even though I messed up the possession before by not stepping to the ball, she (Perdue) told me I need to correct on that,” Trammell said. “But being on the floor with them (Perdue and Sugapong), people who know the game, sleep and breathe the game, I felt comfortable. The reason I was successful tonight was because of them.”
The Highlanders had a good look at the basket but couldn’t get it to drop.
Arizona grabbed the rebound and Sugapong was fouled.
Sugapong hit both free throws and with 1.6 seconds left in the game Arizona held a 62-59 lead.
As the last second ticked down, UC Riverside had a chance to tie, but the shot was disrupted by Perdue and fell short of the basket at the buzzer, giving Arizona the three point win.
Burke has been clear regarding Arizona needing a team mentality when it comes to scoring. The Wildcats don’t have a “go to” scorer.
Last Thursday, Nora Francois and Cornfield were the high scorers in the exhibition win over Cal State LA.
In the win over UC Riverside, it was Perdue and Trammell.
Perdue, a sixth year senior, ended the game with 17 points, three rebounds and one block.
Burke has been challenging Perdue to show leadership on the floor.
“The response, the character she has shown since I challenged her and since she’s been humbled a little bit by me in practice and in the film room has been tremendous,” Burke said. “She didn’t come here (Arizona) to be complacent, she didn’t come here to leave the same player that she got her being and she knew who she was coming to play for. I’m just so happy for her like, I was never worried about her, I just needed to challenge her a little bit, I needed her to get that chip on her shoulder back.”
“I take a challenge well, like ok challenge me. I told her (Burke) in her office the other day ‘ok like you want to challenge me, I like that’. I’m competitive and I’m a competitive person.” Perdue added ” I’m gonna make sure I’m doing whatever is asked of me and I’m going to make sure I’m doing it to the best of my ability and that’s what I think I did the last week or two and it’s paying off.”
Trammell, a true freshman, had 13 points.
“Playing with Lani is so fun,” Trammell said. “When you are on the floor with Lani, she is always looking to find you, so us having that connection me just going out there she is like D like they’re guarding you flat you need to just ‘boom,’ so I’m just ‘booming; and she’s getting me the ball.
“I’m just trying my best to finish. Props to Lani because she just kept feeding me the ball.”
Cornfield ended the game with a team-high eight assists.
Next Up:
Arizona (1-0) will host UC Irvine (1-0) on Sunday at 2:00 p.m.
Recommended for you
