Arizona
Arizona women’s basketball gets hot from outside, defeats UNLV
During most of the Adia Barnes era, Arizona women’s basketball has scored primarily via the fastbreak. On Tuesday night in McKale Center, it was via the 3-point shot. The Wildcats (4-0, 0-0) went 9 for 17 from distance in a 75-66 victory over UNLV (2-1, 0-0).
The game certainly didn’t start that way. The two teams missed their first five 3-pointers with the Rebels going 0-3 and the Wildcats 0-2. Then, things started to heat up from outside for both teams.
UNLV connected on 5 of 8 long-distance shots in the second quarter after going 0 for 5 in the first. UA’s 0 for 2 start was followed by 4 of 6 made 3s in the first half. The Wildcats maintained that through the end of the game but the Rebels fell back into their slump to finish 7 for 23 from 3-point range.
Lauryn Swann led the way for Arizona. The freshman guard came off the bench to score 19 points in just under 19 minutes with all of her scoring coming in the second half. She went 6 for 6 before missing her first shot of the night, finishing 8 for 9 from the floor. She hit both of her shots from distance and went 1 for 2 from the free-throw line. She also had an assist.
“I just feel like the energy throughout the whole game while I was in was just contagious, and I just fed off that, so got to thank my teammates for that,” Swann said.
Swann said she felt like the shot she missed was going to go in, too. As for whether she had ever gotten on that kind of run, there’s “a first time for everything,” Swann quipped.
Swann wasn’t the only one. Montaya Dew was 2 for 2, with both shots coming from outside. She has now hit three shots in her first season on the court with the Wildcats. All three shots have come from 3-point distance. Jada Williams was 3 for 6 from beyond the arc and Paulina Paris hit 2 of her 3 long-distance shots.
When all was said and done, Arizona had hit 52.9 percent of its outside shots and 53.3 percent of its 2-point shots. That helped three Wildcats reach double digits in scoring. In addition to Swann’s 19 points, Williams had 15 and Breya Cunningham had 12.
“Lauryn Swann, who was huge tonight, did not play in the first half,” Barnes said. “As a freshman, she could have hung her head. Came out firing, doing what she does, and just really proud of what she did. Without her doing that, without Jada making big shots, without Breya carrying us for most of the game and playing smart with foul trouble, we don’t win this game.”
Skylar Jones narrowly missed the double-digit mark with nine points to go with her team-high five assists. She also had four rebounds, two steals, and one block.
“I love the fact that in the past, if she wasn’t making shots, she wouldn’t have done anything else,”Barnes said. “So I’m proud. She made her free throws, she got rebounds, she got five assists and two steals. So she’s figuring out how to do other things. It’s not all predicated on scoring. And Sky would not have been able to do that last year.”
Cunningham paced the Wildcats early. She had eight points, four rebounds, and one steal in the first quarter.
“They know that Breya is the dominant down there, so they’re going to double down and stuff,” Williams said. “So just working our butts off to make sure that we hit those shots. And kind of been in a drought a little bit, so everyone’s been in the gym a little extra. But I think when we can shoot, it gives the bigs more openings. And then we can shoot, it makes us open too, and it opens up the floor a lot more, instead of they can’t pack the paint.”
As Barnes alluded to, Cunningham picked up two fouls in the first half, one on a moving screen. It was a concern for the Wildcats because fellow frontcourt starter Isis Beh picked up three fouls in the first 20 minutes. She also had one on the offensive end of the court.
“We have goals for the post group for nobody to foul out this season,” Cunningham said. “So, had us a little nervous the first half, but we pulled through.”
She and Beh both ended the game with four fouls, but the other stats for Cunningham were far more important. Once again, she closed in on a double-double with nine rebounds to go with her 12 points. She added three steals and an assist to her totals.
“Breya and Isis both, we need them tremendously—defense, offense, communication,” Williams said. “Breya is a good post presence. When they get downhill and stuff, she’s always there to block or just reject stuff. So her and Isis are two big keys to the team, and when we don’t have them out there, it hurts us.”
The Wildcats once again struggled with turnovers, committing 21 that led to 20 UNLV points. Many of them were of the bad pass variety where the Rebels just had to put their hands in the air when Arizona went to pass inside.
“We will not win a lot of games in the Big 12 if we don’t correct that,” Barnes said.
Arizona also played deep into the shot clock on a number of occasions. Jones, Beh, and Williams all hit shots or got fouled with the clock about to expire.
The two teams stayed close in the first quarter with Arizona nudging in front 16-15 after the first 10 minutes. UNLV came back to outscore the Wildcats by five points in the second quarter, going into the locker room with a four-point lead. The two teams played an even 14-14 third period.
Arizona trailed by four going into the fourth quarter but outscored the Rebels 29-16 over the final 10 minutes to secure the victory. It was revenge for last season when the Wildcats lost to UNLV by 19 in Las Vegas.
“It felt good because they kicked our butts,” Barnes said. “They whooped us up and down around the floor last year. I mean, decisively. We had a better team last year, but we had a lot going on, and we did not play better. So we had a lot more talent. Think about how much the scoring we lost from that team. We’ve lost…like 97 percent of our scoring…and (have) a much better team (this year). So that tells you a lot.”
The Wildcats now take a break after playing four games in nine days. They next take the court when they travel to Chicago State on Saturday, Nov. 16.
How lottery players increase their odds of winning
Players choose to play with dozens, even hundreds of tickets without spending extra money.
A lucky Arizona lottery player is $200,000 richer after winning a Fantasy Five jackpot on Saturday.
The jackpot-winning ticket was sold at a Safeway located at 7110 N. Oracle Road in Tucson, Arizona, Lottery officials said in a news release.
The lottery ticket matched the winning numbers 5, 15, 18, 38 and 40.
The ticket, which was unclaimed as of Monday morning, will expire on July 24.
This year has already been a lucky one for Arizona lottery players. A Mega Millions ticket worth $112 million was sold at Winners Corner in Tempe, and a The Pick ticket worth $2 million was sold at a Safeway in Tucson.
Arizona
No. 21 Arizona GymCats open Big 12 competition with 1st regular season win over ASU since 2016
TEMPE—The No. 21 Arizona GymCats last defeated rival Arizona State during the regular season on Feb. 22, 2016. They also outscored the Sun Devils in the 2017 Pac-12 Championships. It’s been all ASU since then.
Those days are over. Arizona defeated ASU by almost a full point. The final score was 196.650 to 195.725, a huge gap in NCAA gymnastics. It was a huge opportunity for the program, and the GymCats seized it.
“Dual meets, it’s really hard (to win),” Arizona head coach John Court said. “We knew that to come up here in this environment…that we needed to do our best performance. We went 24 for 24, which was great. We had season highs in three of the events, which you got to play at your best on the biggest stage. And we went ESPN2 live across the country and showed our program off. That is amazing. You don’t get a lot of opportunities like that to show the A across the nation for women’s gymnastics. Get your first Big 12 win. Get a Territorial Cup point.”
ASU has not had a strong start to its season. The Devils came in ranked lower than Arizona in bars and beam, both by significant amounts. On floor exercise, ASU is ranked 25th to Arizona’s 26th. On vault, the advantage was No. 26 to No. 33. That had the Devils ranked No. 34 overall, well behind their in-state rivals.
Arizona took the lead from the jump, going up 49.175 to 48.825 after the first rotation and never looking back. The GymCats broke 49 points on all four rotations. ASU had a 49+ on bars and beam but was below the mark on floor and vault.
Vault was a deciding factor in the meet. In the past, the GymCats often gave up several tenths on the event because they don’t perform any vaults that start from a 10.0. This year, it was an even match as ASU performed a slate of 9.95 vaults, as well.
Arizona had five vaults that scored at least 9.800. Even the low score of 9.775 is often a score the GymCats would keep. On Sunday afternoon, it was the score they dropped. Meanwhile, the Sun Devils had just two vaults break 9.800. Arizona sophomore Abigayle Martin won the event with a 9.875.
“We don’t have any 10.0 vaults so we have to be clean and we have to land,” said Arizona assistant coach Shelby Martinez. “I think knowing that we are at a disadvantage because our ceiling is lower than every other event that we do, but that’s okay. It doesn’t have to be a disadvantage to our total team score. It’s just important going in. We know what we have to do.”
Martin is one of three GymCats performing the all-around this season and has really taken to the role. She finished third of five gymnasts with a 39.325 on Sunday but gave Arizona scores it could use on all four events.
“I love it,” Martin said. “It’s definitely been my dream since I was a kid, to come in and do everything in college. So that’s been great. I actually prefer it to last year, when I would did like two or three, because there’s no waiting. It’s just go, go, go. And I think that that’s great for me because it’s less time to think. And I’m someone who does better just kind of being relaxed and settling in and going.”
Senior Emily Mueller won the all-around for the second time this season. She did it with a career-high 39.425. The 9.775 on vault was her lowest score of the day. She went for a 9.825 or better on the other three events and won the balance beam with a career-high score of 9.925.
The beam was where Arizona put a bow on its wire-to-wire victory. The teams went into the final rotation with Arizona leading 147.375 to 147.000. After both leadoff gymnasts went 9.800, ASU ran into its first problem.
Sun Devil gymnast Sarah Clark scored 9.450. With Gianna Lenczner scoring 9.775 on the beam for Arizona, it was imperative that the Sun Devils drop that score.
Things got more difficult when Mueller put up her 9.925 in the third spot. On floor, ASU responded with a 9.775 from Halle Braaflat, its third gymnast.
Another huge setback followed for ASU. Lilia Purler stepped out of bounds on one of her tumbling passes and ended with a 9.600. While there was still a possibility of dropping Clark’s 9.450, it meant that Purler’s score would have to count.
Things got even better for Arizona with its fourth gymnast on beam. Sophomore Tirzah Wise, who was inserted into the beam lineup for the first time in her career last week, scored a 9.900.
“When Emily went 9.95, that was big,” Court said. “Tirzah going 9.9, too. Career high, career high, back to back. It was a great way to close out the competition.”
When Kimberly Smith scored a 9.700 on floor and Martin countered with a 9.850 on beam, the meet was essentially over. Elena Deets didn’t have her best routine to anchor the beam for Arizona, but she made it mathematically impossible for ASU’s Emily White to score high enough for the Sun Devils to overtake the GymCats.
The GymCats got season highs on every event except floor exercise. Their overall score was also a season high.
Arizona improves to 7-1 on the season and moves up to No. 20 in the rankings. While overall records are not hugely important in college gymnastics, being 1-0 in the Big 12 and landing in the top 20 nationally are important.
Conference standings determine which teams will be in the second session of the league championships at the end of the year. That session tends to get bigger scores even when routines are similar to those performed in the early session. The average of certain season scores will determine which 36 teams advance to NCAA Regionals.
“I think it means everything, and I think that this team is so invested in one another and invested in Arizona gymnastics that it just makes perfect sense,” Martin said. “Like, why not us? I think that coming into the year, we knew that this one would be a harder one. I think we have an underclassmen-dominant class. There’s 12 freshmen and sophomores, so we knew that we’d really have to bond together to come and do something like this. And it’s really great to see us come together and win.”
Lead photo courtesy of Arizona Athletics
Big Monday on ESPN will feature Iowa State in action against Arizona.
The Cyclones (17-2, 7-1) made it two straight with a 76-61 victory over Arizona State this past weekend, keeping the momentum going after putting up 108 points vs. UCF.
Curtis Jones scored a career-high 33 points while Joshua Jefferson had yet another double-double. Jones averages just under 18 points per game while Jefferson sits at 13 points and eight rebounds.
Arizona (13-6, 7-1) has been on fire since Big 12 play started, reeling off nine wins in 10 games after starting the season 4-5. That includes back-to-back victories over Oklahoma State and Colorado.
Caleb Love leads the way at 15.6 points per game with two others in double figures.
ESPN’s BPI gives the Wildcats a 58 percent chance to win.
Here are details on how to watch Iowa State’s contest at Arizona on Monday, Jan. 27:
Who: Iowa State at Arizona in men’s Big 12 Conference basketball action
When: 9:30 p.m. CT | Monday, January 27
Where: McKale Memorial Center | Tucson, Arizona
Live Stream: Stream Iowa State at Arizona live on fuboTV (Start your free trial)
TV Channel: ESPN
Our Prediction: Iowa State 80, Arizona 74
Live Updates, Highlights: Follow the game on Iowa State on SI for live updates, in-game analysis and big-play highlights.
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