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.