Arizona again managed to be competitive in the second half of its third straight loss, but the Wildcats were in too much of a hole at the half to pull off an upset at No. 21 Texas Tech on Saturday night.
Arizona (9-5, 0-3 Big 12) has been outscored in the first half 39-23 against Utah, 32-18 at Colorado and 49-25 at Texas Tech. That’s a combined score of 120-66.
In the second half of those games, the combined score is 101-98 in favor of Arizona (39-24 margin for Arizona against Utah and trailing 43-38 at Colorado and 31-24 at Texas Tech).
Arizona will next play BYU (13-2, 2-1) on Tuesday at 6 p.m. at McKale Center. The Cougars are coming off handing Arizona State its first loss of the season, a 71-62 win at Provo, Utah on Saturday.
Texas Tech (16-0, 3-0) took control of the game early Saturday night against Arizona, mounting a 22–11 lead after the first quarter. The Red Raiders outscored Arizona 27-14 in the second quarter to take a 49-25 halftime lead.
At that point, Arizona had more turnovers (12) than made field goals (10 of 26 shooting).
In the second half, the Wildcats committed only five turnovers but continued to struggle from the field, making 11 of 34 shots.
INSIDE THE BOXSCORE
— Memphis transfer Tanyuel Welch continues to be impressive, scoring a team-high 19 points while shooting 9 of 12 from the field with nine rebounds against Texas Tech. She had 12 points and eight rebounds in the loss at Colorado on New Year’s Eve. In the two road games, she had 31 points on 14-of-24 shooting (58.3%) with 17 rebounds and a couple of steals.
— Leading scorer Mickayla Perdue, averaging 17.4 points a game, was limited to nine points on 3-of-11 shooting from the field against the Red Raiders, including 2 of 5 from 3-point range. She led the team with four steals.
— Noelani Cornfield finished with eight points and three assists but had a team-high four turnovers as part of Arizona’s 17 turnovers, almost two more than what the Wildcats average a game. Cornfield also had three steals.
— Texas Tech shot 47.5% from the field and connected on 13 three-pointers, going 13 of 31.
— Arizona finished shooting 35% the field and went 3-of-12 from beyond the arc.
— The Wildcats outscored Texas Tech 34-26 in the paint but their bench production paled in comparison to Texas Tech — the Red Raider reserves outscored Arizona’s bench players 40-7.
— One of Arizona’s bench players, former Texas Tech post player Achol Magot, fouled out in only 10 minutes after producing five points and a rebound. The former Salpointe player who graduated from Sunnyside was given a technical foul after being demonstrative after making a shot.
— Blessing “Adde” Adebanjo started and did not score, going 0 of 6 from the field, but had five rebounds in 13 minutes.
— Nora Francois had the most minutes among the reserves with 21 but scored only two points while trying three shots. She finished with four fouls.
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