Arizona
Arizona women’s basketball falls to GCU despite career high by Breya Cunningham
Arizona head coach Adia Barnes was concerned about the Wildcats’ energy at practice on Wednesday afternoon. The team was preparing for GCU, an opponent that has exploited the very problem the Wildcats have had all season: turnovers.
Arizona came into the game averaging 19.9 turnovers per game. GCU has forced their opponents into 18.4. The Wildcats kept it slightly under their average, but 17 turnovers, nine missed free throws, and an inability to keep up with Trinity San Antonio were enough to give the Lopes a 69-66 win in the two programs’ first-ever matchup.
“I thought GCU did a really good job of making it really hard to guard them off the dribble,” Barnes said. “We were exploited in the second half, for sure, just isolating us in different pick and roll situations, spreading the floor and misdirecting us and isolating for right hand drives, and we really couldn’t find an answer for it. I thought first half, we did some really good things. I thought that we were really good on the boards. Our guards were offensive rebounding and putting back, and then it was just halted in the second half.”
San Antonio, one of 12 transfers on the 15-player GCU roster, was superb. She had a double-double with 26 points on 9 for 13 shooting, 12 rebounds, four assists, and four steals. The only downsides to her game were the eight turnovers she committed.
She often found the lane wide open for layups. At times, she went coast-to-coast off made baskets and still beat the Arizona defense.
“23 is a quick player,” said Arizona forward Breya Cunningham. “She’s very fast. Their whole thing was just to get the ball in fast and run the ball. So she’s beating us down.”
The loss was Arizona’s second to an in-state mid-major this season after losing to NAU last month.
“That’s bad,” Barnes said.
The Wildcats had five players in double figures. They shot slightly better from the field than GCU. They had two fewer turnovers and scored three more points off turnovers. They had seven more second-chance points. Their bench outscored GCU’s bench by 10. They led for almost 28 minutes of the game. None of it mattered.
“Our offense was good in the first half,” Barnes said. “We took some runs. I think it was good. I think…our approach and our reaction the second half—when they went on a run, we never reacted, got a stop, or we took bad shots and it led to a fast break run. So I think when you’re more experienced, let’s say, you don’t take those quick shots. You get the ball reversed because you understand, like, okay, they’re killing us in transition. Let’s use a better offense. We didn’t get that. The ball stuck, then it’s bad shots that led to the fast breaks. So, an unorganized offense is an unorganized defense.”
In addition to the turnovers and poor shot selection in the second half, the Wildcats hit just 52.6 percent of their free throws. Arizona went 10 for 19 from the line. Until they began fouling the Lopes at the end of the game, the free throw attempts were roughly even.
The Arizona players were also affected by the high two-three zone in the second half.
“We struggled getting open,” said guard Paulina Paris. “Obviously, we struggled finding Breya, who was hot this game.”
The extension of the zone was the biggest problem for the Wildcats
“Even against the zone in the first half, we were getting (Breya) the ball, but because they extended it, we did not,” Barnes said. “We didn’t understand the concept of attacking the gaps. So we’re just dribbling. Have to attack the gas, especially if it’s high, if we get the ball to the baseline, you’re gonna be open because they’re in a 3-2. We couldn’t even get to the corners because we couldn’t start initially and reverse the ball.”
Arizona’s other Achilles heel—fouls in the post—didn’t rear its head until later i” the game. Cunningham has picked up two fouls in the first quarter of four games this season. Against the Lopes, she didn’t pick up her second until the third quarter, but she had her fourth with over four minutes left in the game.
Cunningham had a career-high 20 points to go with six rebounds, three blocks, and two steals. She went 10 for 13 from the field but missed all five of her free throws. In a game decided by three points, it was a dagger.
She wasn’t the only one to miss free throws, though. Skylar Jones went 5 for 11 from the field but missed both of her free throws. Jones ended with 10 points, five rebounds, two assists, and three steals. However, she also had four fouls and a team-high five turnovers.
The Wildcats had a scare with 7:33 left in the game. Point guard Jada Williams had to be helped off the floor after rolling her ankle. Williams has a nagging foot injury that stretches back to last season, but this looked like it might take her out of the game and possibly more.
Instead, the guard went back to the locker room, got her ankle taped, and returned. The crowd roared with approval as she took the floor again at the 5:47 mark.
Williams hit a clutch 3-pointer that cut the lead to three points with 15 seconds left in the game. It was one of only two makes on the night, although she ended with 11 points. Most of her points came from the line where she went 6 for 7. She added six rebounds, four assists, and four steals. Williams also had three turnovers.
Freshman guard Lauryn Swann gave Arizona all of its bench points. She scored 11 points on 4-for-8 shooting, including going 3 for 6 from beyond the arc. She had two rebounds and two assists but also contributed four of the Wildcats’ turnovers.
The Wildcats played shorthanded for the second straight game. Starting forward Isis Beh remained in concussion protocol. Sahnya Jah was also “unavailable” for the game. Barnes said both should be back for the next game, but it left them shorthanded in the frontcourt.
Montaya Dew started at the four. Barnes tried both Jorynn Ross and Katarina Knežević for brief periods, but none of the three were very effective.
“This is game we really needed four, because they played small, like a 5-11 four and then the shooting four,” Barnes said. “Sometimes we’d play two fives. It’s hard for us to guard a versatile post player. Then, Montaya, it wasn’t her night. She had to be a little bit more physical. And it’s okay, there’s going to be those nights, but then we need to have someone off the bench. We didn’t have a four off the bench.”
Dew ended with two points, five rebounds, three assists, and one block. She also had three turnovers. Ross’ only positive stat was a steal. Knežević recorded one turnover in her minute of play.
GCU took the lead with 2:05 to go in the game. By that time, Arizona had four starters with four fouls each. It made it even more difficult to guard a player like San Antonio. Ultimately, though, Barnes felt it was about toughness and decision-making.
“A little bit more toughness down the stretch, handling the pressure, we win the game, but we weren’t able to,” Barnes said. “They did a great job of not allowing us to.”
Arizona has two more nonconference games before it starts Big 12 play. The first will be against Cal State Bakersfield on Tuesday, Dec. 10 at 6 p.m. MST in McKale Center.
Arizona
Arizona AG continues to investigate Glendale apartment complex after Friday deadline to fix A/C
MESA – Mary Salcedo is the executive director of Arizona Roller Derby, but everyone on the team knows her as MaryMorphosis, or Morph for short.
A derby name is as good as a legal name once you join a league. Arizona Roller Derby – the second-oldest flat track roller derby league in the world – has plenty of unique monikers on its two home and travel teams.
During a doubleheader homestand, players introduce themselves.
“What’s your name?”
“Mecca,” said Sara Mecca-Whitlock, an interior architect in Phoenix.
“Brooklyn Dodge-her,” said Kristi Baptiste, a grandma and senior project manager from Ventura, California.
The rules surrounding derby names are loose. Some players have nicknames bestowed upon them when they join.
“Since I was wearing a Brooklyn shirt, they started calling me Brooklyn, and we added the Dodge-her later,” Baptiste said. “The funny thing is, I am not an L.A. Dodger fan. I don’t even watch baseball.”
It’s clear Roller Derby isn’t like other organized sports. There is no professional threshold to work toward as a goal. Players show up year after year, paying to participate, paying to travel and returning to the community they find along the way.
Across the country, including in Phoenix, teams find a way to organize players and facilities to play the sport.
Selecting derby names is part of the process.
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MAXimum HOverdrive of the Bad News Beaters poses for a photo as she skates at the Broadway Recreation Center in Mesa on Saturday, June 27, 2026. (Photo by Samad Khan/Cronkite News) -
Goldy Knocks, left, and Hella Naughty of the Bad News Beaters pose after their match at the Broadway Recreation Center in Mesa on Saturday, June 27, 2026. (Photo by Samad Khan/Cronkite News) -
Bad News Beaters skater Dr. Doctor flashes a hand sign while posing for a photo at the Broadway Recreation Center in Mesa on Saturday, June 27, 2026. (Photo by Samad Khan/Cronkite News)
“Sure, man,” said Rachel Sherman, a 13-year veteran of Arizona Roller Derby and an electrician training in an apprentice program. “My dad, with the perfect dad joke, was like, ‘Well, I guess if you’re going to change your name, you should probably change your number to four. So I am four sure, man.”
Elaina Bryan, a 25-year-old receptionist in Phoenix and lifelong derby player, said her nickname is Squeezer.
“There was a particular one of my mom’s friends, who I would give a really good squeeze, big hug to,” Bryan said. “So my name actually used to be a little squeezer, but now that I’m an adult, it’s just squeezer.”
The names used outside of derby are not relevant on the track. Official rosters are submitted only with the players’ derby names.
“You think about the parts of you that you want to foster that can handle the intensity, the eyes on you, the attention, the strength, the perseverance and determination,” Sure, man said. “You give that a name and it becomes this kind of alter ego that then you’re allowing it to blossom and grow in this space.”
Roller Derby’s history
Roller derby was officially born on Aug.13, 1935, when promoter Leo Seltzer debuted the first Transcontinental Roller Derby event at the Chicago Coliseum. Initially created as endurance marathons during the Great Depression, the event evolved into the full-contact sport we know today.
After peaking in popularity on television in the 1950s and 60s, the sport largely faded out, but in 2001, a modern revival took place in Austin, Texas, which popularized the grassroots, flat-track format that is played globally today.
“We (will) hit our 25th season in 2028, which is pretty significant,” MaryMorphosis said, “We’re hoping to go out huge.”
Arizona Roller Derby is older than the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association, which was founded in 2004 as the United Leagues Coalition and formally changed its name to the WFTDA in 2005. WFTDA is the international governing body of the sport. Today, it has over 400 member leagues on six continents.
Arizona Roller Derby doesn’t compete on a bank track. They can play on any flat surface if they have a way to lay down track boundaries.
A bank track is a raised and curved surface, like a NASCAR track. It’s the kind of roller derby played in the 2009 movie with Elliot Page, “Whip it.”
After the COVID-19 pandemic, Arizona Roller Derby lost the warehouse space it rented full-time and the participation numbers dwindled. Now the group rents temporary spaces across the East Valley to accommodate practices and competitions, like Saturday’s doubleheader.
“I would hope that we would have our own space again, “ MaryMorphosis said. “We need to double our membership to do that.”
On a Saturday afternoon in June, players began arriving at the Broadway Recreation Center in Mesa. The same people that would be competing on track in a few hours used thin rope and white electrical tape to lay down the track borders on top of the gymnasium hardwood.
The rules
The Saturday doubleheader featured two Arizona Roller Derby home teams, and two travel teams from California.
Bad News Beaters are the first home team. They go against the West Coast Derby Knockouts.
Derby games last one hour. Two 30-minute halves are broken up by a 15-minute intermission. The intensity on the track lasts for two-minute jams before lines switch off and new players sub in for the next jam.
Mecca, a jammer on Bad News Beaters, points out that “there’s four blockers from each team that get on the track and one jammer from each team.”
A jammer’s helmet cover, a large polyester cap with stars on both sides, indicates they are the one person on the track who can score points for their team.
One blocker is known as the pivot. They wear a similar, bright-colored cap, but theirs has a line running through the center. At any point, a jammer can remove their star and pass it to the pivot. For the remainder of the jam, the pivot acts as the Jammer to score points.
“I’m a pushy jammer, and I like being strong,” MaryMorphosis said, “and I like breaking people apart.”
The jammers line up behind a jam line while the eight blockers stand anywhere in the box in front of the jam line but behind the pivot line.
Waiting in the box is Californian blocker Brooklyn Dodge-her, and her daughter, Rocky Bye Baby. They are there to throw their bodies into the Bad News Beaters jammer to stop them from scoring points.
Brooklyn Dodge-her was recruited to derby 12 years ago. She volunteers as a coach for the West Coast Derby youth travel team on top of training and competing herself.
“Mondays for the kids, Tuesday for myself. Wednesday I get a break,” Brooklyn said. “Thursday for myself. Friday for the kids. Saturday if we don’t have a game, I get free. And Sunday in the morning it’s the kids and in the evening it’s the adults.”
At 51, she is competing in her last season of roller derby.
“I became a grandmother,” Brooklyn said. “I have to start spending some time with a grandbaby. I’ll probably get bored and be like, ‘Y’all want me back?’”
The officials blow the whistle to signal the start of a jam and the jammers push off their line straight into the bodies in front of them.
“If I get through the pack first I get what’s called lead jammer,” Mecca said. “On the second time through, they get one point for every blocker from the opposite team that they pass legally with their hips. That can go for two minutes.”
The lead jammer can call off the jam at any point, especially if it prevents the other jammer from scoring any points for the opposing team.
“Does it matter if the jammer is behind me? Do I have two or more blockers in the box? Then don’t call it,” MaryMorphosis said, “because it might be worth losing the points just to have your teammates out.”
A player in the penalty box at the end of a jam will remain in the box during the start of the next jam.
The ways to receive penalties include hitting someone in the head, hitting someone in the back, or getting back on the track in front of somebody that was in front of you when you left. All penalties must be served for 30 seconds.
A game requires a whopping seven skating referees and even more non-skating officials. Those positions are entirely filled by volunteers.
Robert Cushman began 17 years ago in Nebraska when his wife started competing in roller derby. Years after their divorce, he continues to enjoy participating in the sport while living in Tucson.
“Most of us don’t get paid anything,” Cushman said. “Usually Phoenix will give us like a gas stipend.”
Even as an official he uses a derby name. He goes by Manosaur, a reference to the animated series “Venture Bros.”
“I usually go once a week to the scrimmage down in Tucson, and then I usually come up here for whatever games they have,” Cushman said.
During jams, Manosaur skates around the inside of the track, monitoring the action to keep the play fair.
“Watch the pack,” Mecca said. “Don’t worry too much about the jammer when they’re by themselves. But once we enter the pack again, then it gets crazy.”
Mecca is a mom of five who started playing roller derby in North Carolina. She said she retired for six years as she finished up her military career and went back to school. Eventually she began coaching the ASU derby team. Two years ago, she began playing again.
The West Coast Derby Knockouts dominated, 223-53.
“They were taking the pivot line constantly instead of the jam line,” MaryMorphosis said after the game. “They were just really big. And both our blockers and our jammers were thrown off.”
Game two
Morph sits in the stands after the early afternoon loss and watches the second match of the day. The home team, Skate Riot Project, took on Orange County Roller Derby.
She became executive director in January and takes on the administrative responsibilities on top of competing and working full time.
“I love building and growing community,” MaryMorphosis said. “It was an opportunity to do that and step into just a significant leadership role.”
She began playing derby in 2022 when she still lived in upstate New York.
“I broke my leg three months in,” MaryMorphosis said, “like shattered it. Recovery was rough.”
After two surgeries and a cross-country move to start a new job as a project manager at Arizona State’s School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering, MaryMorphosis had her first uninterrupted derby season in 2025.
“I don’t know what kept me coming back,” she said. “I guess it was the community.”
Meanwhile, Elaina Bryan, or Squeezer, is another recent Arizona transplant and a blocker on Skate Riot Project.
“My mom started playing back in 2008, actually, and we went to practices with her,” Squeezer said. “Eventually, they had enough kids’ interest that they started a kids team.”
She was 9 when she started playing in Bakersfield, California. She played on her college team and then moved to Arizona in October. Now she plays on a travel team as well as the home team.
“I was just kind of trying to see where I fit in and started to find people at that same level to start connecting with,” Squeezer said, “and just kind of started building up my social circle.”
Teams are comprised of players of all ages, but everyone is connected to the community that exists in Derby. It’s more everlasting than the final scores.
“I went to a yard sale,” Brooklyn Dodge-her said. “We didn’t even get across the street and they were like, ‘You want to play roller derby? It was a West Coast yard sale.”
MaryMorphosis did not hearing back from one roller league before she stumbled on the practice of another team.
“I was literally in the mall because my old league had taken over an Old Navy, and they were skating in the mall,” MaryMorphosis said. “I was buying yarn at Michael’s, and I was like, ‘OK, that’s the sign.’”
When Skate Riot Project lost to Orange County Roller Derby 125-100, the teams shook hands and huddled together. Orange County picked its MVP Jammer, blocker and MVP overall from SRP, and SRP picked its players from Orange County. They hugged each other as they presented the awards.
“We’re playing the game against another team, and it’s really intense and like we’re very serious and focused with our team,” Squeezer said. “But afterwards, we all hang out and we goof around.”
With the games over, the players begin clearing out the temporary space. The track gets peeled off the gymnasium floor and the tape is put into trash bags.
The four teams get in their cars and head to the after-party together.
“If the only thing we do for the next five years is become the place for people to be themselves, that’s a win,” MaryMorphosis said.
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LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — Reno and Las Vegas are the two fastest-warming cities in the entire country.
Tonight we take a look at what neighboring Arizona is doing to address similar heat challenges, and whether those steps can work in Nevada.
Las Vegas has several areas called urban heat islands, which are hotter than the surrounding areas because of less vegetation, such as trees, and more concrete development.
Residents in East Las Vegas, one of the areas considered an urban heat island, say they’re not surprised that temperatures continue to rise, especially in their part of town.
“Definitely, when you go more to outskirts, there’s definitely more shade, more trees everywhere, but more in the center of town it’s very much less,” said Anthony Flores.
He believes there could be more relief from the heat.
“More water accessibility, more shade overall,” said Flores, whose line of work causes him to be outside every day. “I usually drink over two gallons of water a day just to keep not getting heat stroke.”
Charlie Ponce agrees with him.
“Definitely more trees that are useful, not like palm trees or anything like that. Parks that have like the water parks in them,” said Ponce. “Yeah, splash pads.”
Valley cities and Clark County have implemented steps like having cooling stations and tree-planting campaigns to help address heat challenges.
Phoenix and other parts of Arizona are also experiencing extreme heat every summer, as well as drought issues.
UNLV Public Policy Professor Dr. Ben Leffel says there are steps in the neighboring state that can be useful here in Nevada, where temperatures historically continue to be on the rise.
“For example, Phoenix has an ordinance that says that tenants must have rooms that are coolable to at least 86 degrees Fahrenheit,” said Dr. Leffel. “And that’s then also that first responders are equipped with chilled IV therapy and cold water immersion and things like that.”
News 3 spoke with heat mitigation and management experts in Arizona to see what they believe has been working for them.
One thing they mentioned was that Arizona has the first state-level chief heat officer.
“We have much better and much more accurate numbers now about who’s actually getting sick and who’s dying from heat-related deaths, and what the causes and kind of contributing factors are. So, if you don’t track something, you can’t understand what’s going on with it,” said Dr. Ladd Keith, Heat Resilience Initiative Director at the University of Arizona.
Ponce thinks it would help in Las Vegas.
“Like, let them know to tell the public like, hey, in these areas it’s getting out of hand, and this is what we can do as a community, or just have someone like regulated or watch over it,” she said.
And the city of Phoenix also has an entire heat office, something that can be beneficial on a local level, like being able to coordinate between different groups like homeless outreach, the hospitals, etcetera.
“Statewide coordination of cooling centers, lessons learned that are shared across different working groups, and so just a lot of cooperation that really creates a lot of efficiency too, and so I think that’s an important thing to note, is there is a cost to this, but the efforts are saving lives, and I think it’s making government more efficient,” said Keith.
Amy Scoville-Weaver, the Healthy Cities Program Director in Arizona for The Nature Conservancy, says the Phoenix Metro has done well with increasing vegetation, including in areas where there’s drought.
“So we’re looking at supporting and planting hardy trees, drought-tolerant trees, trees that are already designed, designed to live and thrive in water-scarce environments,” said Scoville-Weaver.
She says they also look at improving infrastructure to support it.
“So when it does rain, the water doesn’t just go down asphalt, get polluted, and go through a storm drain; rather, that water is being diverted to vegetation that needs it,” said Scoville-Weaver.
Leffel says another thing to keep in mind is heat safety can also come from indoor policies.
“For example, Phoenix has an ordinance that says that tenants must have rooms that are coolable to at least 86 degrees Fahrenheit,” he said.
A new Nevada law that went into effect last week requires larger jurisdictions to come up with heat mitigation plans.
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