Arizona head coach Becky Burke played all 11 of her available players in the home opener. Seven scored at least seven points, giving the Wildcats a comfortable but closer-than-expected 74-61 victory over the Iona Gaels on Sunday afternoon.
“I just think we’ve played down to our opponents here at home,” Burke said. “I told them all week. We did not have a great week of practice. I did not like their approach this week. I told them this is like the quintessential trap game, right? You beat Stanford,
everyone’s telling you how good you are, and then you have an Iona that comes in here, and you have UCLA looming in the background, right? It’s your typical game where you can let up, you can let loose, and you can either make it messy like we did today, or you could potentially lose.”
Burke’s displeasure with the Wildcats’ play was obvious during the game. She called a timeout with Arizona leading 28-18 in the second quarter. The team had just allowed Iona’s Claudia Fiel to take the ball to the rim unbothered on a fast break despite multiple Wildcats being back on defense.
“Credit to Iona,” Burke said. “I think that’s going to be a really good basketball team this year. I really do. I think they’re going to have a lot of success in their league, and I’m just grateful for the challenge and the fight they gave us because we’re going to learn a lot from it.”
The win was secured in the second quarter when Arizona outscored Iona 23-13. In the other three quarters, the Gaels either stayed within three points or outright won the period. They cut into a 20-point Wildcat lead in the fourth quarter by outscoring Arizona 19-17.
“We had a chance to put them away multiple times, and we didn’t do that,” Burke said. “Which I know they’re not feeling great about. Neither am I. But like I said in the long term, we’re gonna take a win. A win is a win. We’re 2-0 right now. We feel great. We have to have a better week of practice. We have to have a better prep for UCLA, and they know that.”
Arizona had three players get into double figures, led by reserve forward Breanna Williams. Williams was the top scorer and rebounder for the Wildcats with 12 points and seven rebounds in just over 18.5 minutes of play.
“I don’t try and overthink it,” Williams said. “You know, I just try and go in there and work hard, try and grab some boards, try and get to the free throw line, draw fouls, and try and make free throws. But I don’t really overthink it. I just go in there, try and give energy, and try and be that presence on defense.”
The Wildcats’ other two double-digit scorers were freshman Jasleen Green and senior Sumayah Sugapong. Both ended with 11 points. Green did most of her damage from the line where the bulk of the team struggled. While the freshman was 6 for 7, the team as a whole was 19 for 31. It has been a theme in the early going this year.
“Yeah, I mean it’s been horrific,” Burke said. “I mean we shot a ton of them this week…One of those things that I don’t want to overly harp on with our team because then you make it more of a mental head game for them. I trust them. I know that they’re going to continue getting in there and getting free throws up.”
The Wildcats lost the turnover battle after turning Stanford over 30 times on Monday. The Gaels forced 17 while turning the ball over 15 times on their end. Several of the Arizona turnovers were post entry passes that ended up at the ankles of the post players.
“We got loose with the ball some,” Burke said. “I think we were trying to execute some passes that we just threw a little bit too high or a little bit too low. So yeah, it was just just being loose, not focusing, and thinking they’re just going to hand us things, and that didn’t happen today. So we got to clean it up, for sure.”
One player who showed improvement in that area was Simba Finley. In the exhibitions and the season opener, the freshman had a tendency to force drives to the bucket and hold the ball instead of finding teammates. She seemed to make the correction for the home opener.
Finley tied for the team high with three assists and grabbed five rebounds while only taking two shots. The rebounds were tied for second on the team.
“They played a very unique defense in the posts,” Burke said. “They were going to front us. They were going to really crowd, be heavy on the midline. So we really just talked about really finding angles to get the ball in there today, and throwing skips and being unselfish. So I did think she was probably one of our better post entry passers today, just one of our better skip passers, which I was thankful that she understood the scout and tried to execute.”
The Wildcats prepare for their first ranked opponent and first road game of the year on Thursday when they face No. 11 UCLA in Pauley Pavilion.
Williams knows what to expect. When she was at Maryland last season, the No. 12 Terrapins lost to the Bruins by 30.
“I’m excited to play them again,” Williams said. “They obviously have a different roster, but it’s more of a game about us. You know, stick to our principles and what we do well, regardless of who’s on the roster.”
