Close but no cigar for Arizona women’s basketball in double OT loss to USC

It couldn’t have been a worse way to end their final season in the Pac-12. The Arizona Wildcats had to play six of their final games against Top 10 teams. Three of those would be on the road. With everything they’ve experienced this season, it was just adding insult to injury.

Arizona has turned that insult and injury on its head down the stretch. It almost did again, but No. 7 USC was just a little too much in a 95-93 double-overtime victory over Arizona.

“We battled a really good team—No. 7 team in the country—took them into overtime and had chances to win,” said Arizona head coach Adia Barnes. “I’m not upset at all. Obviously, I’m disappointed in the loss, but our kids played their hearts out. We basically played six players. I mean, they played the whole entire game…We made some mistakes. Our bigs fouled out. It really hurt us in rebounding. The difference in the game was rebounding and the fouls. So I can’t fault us. They played hard and we had a chance to win…so I’m proud of our players and we have to have selective amnesia.”

In the last game between the two teams, Arizona kept it close through the first 20 minutes, going into halftime trailing by just five points. USC ran away with the third quarter before coming back to earth in the fourth. That third quarter was all it took.

This wasn’t a repeat of that game, but it ended with the same result.

Again, it was close through the first half. This time, Arizona went into the half with a slight edge—and it solved its third-quarter issues from the last meeting. The Wildcats extended their two-point lead out of the locker room to a 53-46 advantage after 30 minutes.

The nearly 7,600 fans in McKale Center were rocking, only getting louder as Arizona stretched its lead to 10 several times in the fourth quarter. Then, star freshman JuJu Watkins fouled out with 1:41 to go in the game. It looked like a foregone conclusion. Arizona would win its second game against a Top 10 team in less than a week.

USC had different ideas.

Kayla Padilla stepped up for USC again, this time aided by Kaitlyn Davis. After Watkins fouled out, Davis made two layups and a jumper to pull USC within three points. Padilla tied the game.

As was the case at Oregon State in their last double-overtime loss, all Arizona needed was one rebound.

Esmery Martinez put the Wildcats up by five with two free throws. There was just 29 seconds to go.

At the other end, USC missed a 3-pointer but grabbed the offensive board. Davis got the second-chance bucket and the whistle. She missed her and-1 but grabbed her own offensive board. Padilla missed the first 3-point attempt. Davis grabbed the offensive board again. The next 3-pointer didn’t miss. It was all even with seven seconds to go.

“What I talked about with the staff was it was the exact situation as Oregon State that lost the game,” Barnes said. “Offensive rebound, and then that led to the 3s because when you give good teams…two, three chances, they’re going to hit one eventually.”

Pueyo had one go off the back of the rim at the end of regulation. It would take at least five more minutes to decide this one.

In the second overtime, USC led by three points with just over a minute to go. Williams tied it with 20 seconds to go. Neither team could push ahead over those final 20, so it was on to the second overtime.

Arizona led by as many as two in the final overtime, but USC had the advantage most of the time. Courtney Blakely made two free throws to cut the lead to three with 54 seconds to go.

With just five seconds left in the third overtime, USC opted to foul Arizona to keep the Wildcats from tying it with a 3-pointer. Pueyo hit both of her free throws, but USC was still up by one.

The Wildcats put Rayah Marshall on the line with the one-point lead. She made just one of her two free throws, giving USC a two-point lead. With no timeouts left, Arizona had to go the length of the court with four seconds to go.

Jada Williams made it up the court and let the ball go. It bounced off the back of the rim. Heartbreaker.

Fouls were once again Arizona’s Achilles heel. Breya Cunningham picked up two early in the first quarter and fouled out 10 seconds into the first overtime period. She was extremely effective when she was on the floor, going 4 for 4 with 3 rebounds and 2 blocks, but was restricted to about 15 minutes of play due to fouls.

Martinez also played sparingly compared to some of her teammates. Part of that was related to fouls, but part was due to being elbowed in the face for the second straight game.

“Playing 50 minutes is hard,” Barnes said of the task assigned to Helena Pueyo and Skylar Jones. “And then I’m asking her to score, too. I’m asking them to guard good players…That’s not easy. I mean, they’re mentally tough and we’re in great shape, but it’s hard. You’re gonna take plays off. You’re gonna mentally miss some box sets…I think it’s just hard to sustain it with our style for 50 minutes.”

Pueyo didn’t look any different than she usually does despite the huge task she’d just completed. Jones sat at the podium giggling and talking about how the things she was doing were going to help her in the future, seeming unbothered by almost 50 minutes of tough basketball and cycling through the different positions she has to play when the bigs get into foul trouble.

“In the long run, it’s gonna make me better,” Jones said. “It’s gonna make me more versatile like Helena when I get older, so I feel like it’s hard right now, and I don’t want to do it right now, but I’m gonna do it…In practice, they’re teaching me how to front, you know get in front and use my body and things like that. So I think it’s just gonna help me be a better player overall as we progress.”

Despite the loss, Barnes felt that the game proved once again how much the team has improved since early in the season—and how much it would continue to improve.

“I think we know that we can play with anybody in the country,” she said. “I think we know we’re gonna win some more games and I think we all feel really good about that…I don’t think we’re afraid of anybody. I know that we could have boxed out a little bit better, but they’re also a really good rebounding team, but that’s that’s a mental focus and adjustment that you can adjust to that. I think it’s hard to adjust to not moving the ball or playing selfish, but we’re playing unselfishish and there’s a lot of plays that we scored. We had beautiful plays to our posts, so many plays where everybody touches the ball and got reversed twice and the layup. So we’re playing good basketball right now…Two less mental mistakes or one less mental mistake, and we win the game.”

Pueyo led the team with 21 points, 9 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 blocks, and 3 steals. Jones was just behind her with 19 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, and 3 steals.

Arizona also got double-digit scoring from Isis Beh with 16 points, Williams with 14, and Courtney Blakely with 11.

The team faces UCLA on senior day Saturday, Mar. 2 at 6 p.m. MST.