The Arizona Wildcats seem to have one quarter of extreme struggle in every game. It was the second quarter on Tuesday night, but they found a way to bring their fans to their feet and send their seniors out on a high note with a 75-67 win over the Houston Cougars.
It was a long, drawn out and sometimes sluggish game with 10 official reviews. At times, the fans were silent because there was little to cheer about. The Wildcats found a way to wake them up.
With 7:38 left in the game, junior guard Sumayah
Sugapong hit a 3 that put the home team up for good. McKale Center exploded like it was a championship bucket.
“What a way to wrap up the regular home season,” Arizona head coach Becky Burke said. “And just can’t say enough about how they supported us this season, and day in and day out, showing up and filling this place for a team that just battled and battled and battled and may not have shown up in the wins or loss column, but this fan base stayed true to us this year, and it was absolutely a difference maker, and it was absolutely incredible. So really just thankful for our fans and what they showed us all season.”
The excitement was a long time coming.
Arizona scored just six points in the second frame, but the drought started in the first. The Wildcats led by as many as six points in the opening quarter, but they struggled to hit layups. The only reason they held a lead going into the second quarter was that the Cougars had their own difficulty. The visitors only scored seven points in the opening quarter.
The last basket scored by either team in the first was by Arizona’s Blessing ‘Adde’ Adebanjo. It came with 2:44 left in the frame.
Houston found its rhythm in the second quarter, but Arizona’s shooting woes continued. Arizona didn’t score until the Cougars had tied the game at 13-13.
Molly Ladwig hit a 3 at the 6:40 mark of the second, but it was one of just two field goals by the Wildcats in the period. The other one came with 13 seconds left in the half when Sugapong hit a layup. The only other point in the second came on a Sugapong free throw.
It was not pretty to watch.
A big reason for Arizona’s offensive struggles was the lack of Houston turnovers in the second quarter. The Cougars turned the ball over seven times in the opening 10 minutes. Five of those were on Arizona steals, allowing the Wildcats to get out in transition.
In the second period, the Cougars cut the turnovers down to three. Arizona was forced to find offense in the halfcourt, something that has been difficult for the ‘Cats all season.
It didn’t help that Cornfield had to leave the game for several minutes. The point guard was hit in the face with just under 6.5 minutes left in the half. One of numerous reviews determined the contact was incidental, but that didn’t help Cornfield. She went to the locker room and didn’t re-enter to the game until 3:17 on the clock. It took quick work by associate athletic trainer Bart Jameson and the medical staff.
“Bart told me she had to go get stitches,” Burke said. “And I said, ‘Tell them to hurry up and stitch her up, get her back in.’ So I don’t know. I think she got hit, maybe inadvertently, but yeah, the lips started bleeding, so they got her stitched up. But that’s toughness right there. Come back in and and I think she was still just downhill and aggressive when she came back in and wasn’t babying it or anything like that. So that was good to see.”
Cornfield willed her team to victory with both her scoring and her playmaking. She almost got her third double-double in Big 12 play with 18 points, 9 assists, and 1 steal. She shot 50 percent from the floor and was 6 for 6 from the line.
“I thought Cornfield just really was a woman on a mission, and I thought she set the tone there early,” said Houston head coach Matthew Mitchell. “And they were turning the ball over in the first half, and they looked a little out of rhythm. And I think her early play…in the third quarter really kind of set a set of tone for them.”
Sugapong was the beneficiary of several of Cornfield’s assists, especially in the fourth quarter when Arizona was taking control. Five of Cornfield’s assists were in the final 10 minutes. Three were dishes to Sugapong.
Sugapong led the team with 20 points on 6-for-16 shooting. She hit 2 of 6 shots from beyond the arc and made 6 of 7 free throws. She also had one assist and five steals.
While the fourth was the biggest quarter for Arizona as far as scoring, the Wildcats jumpstarted their offense in the third quarter. There were still blunders, though. An Arizona player fouled a 3-point shooter for at least the fourth time this season.
As has been the case on multiple 3-point fouls, it was done at the end of a period when the ‘Cats had the advantage and the shot was unlikely to be good. Kyndall Hunter stepped to the line and hit two of three to give the Cougars the lead again.
The Wildcats put it behind them quickly. They traded buckets with the Cougars to start the fourth quarter, then Sugapong hit her big 3. It started an 11-2 run that put the home team up by 8 with 3:52 to go.
Both of Arizona’s healthy final-year players started the game. Cornfield had been benched after receiving a technical late in the game at Baylor, part of a contentious season when she was held out of games or didn’t start several times. Francois has started at times this season but not others and had also sat out a game for disciplinary reasons. Despite that, Burke felt they had earned the right to start on their senior night.
“It’s just doing the right thing,” Burke said. “As seniors, this is something that, like—it’s their senior day. They need to hear their name one last time in McKale and have this opportunity. Did I want to do it? No, but it’s the right decision. And, you know, it’s something they’re going to look back on and remember starting their last game here. And I think that’s bigger than mistakes they’ve made or things that they’ve done.”
Francois also went out on a high note. A player who once said that she didn’t think this level of basketball was even a possibility for her helped her team win with 12 points, 7 rebounds, 1 assist, and 2 steals. She also did the little things that don’t show up on the stat sheet.
“She was solid, and I think we’re at our best when Nora’s solid, right?” Burke said. “She’s not doing too much, she’s not pressing, she’s taking the game that comes to her…She took good shots. I thought she set great screens, and was really good defensively when they were in ball screens, which is where she’s always really good.”
There was also youth on the floor for the final regular season game in McKale. Molly Ladwig got her third straight start and sixth of the season. She contributed 9 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, and 1 steal.
The freshman had several nice moments, including a pretty spin move that she’s been showing more often lately.
“She used to mess us up in open gym with that spin move,” joked sixth-year guard Micky Perdue.
Perdue didn’t get to play on her senior night at Arizona. She was hurt four games into Big 12 play and has been on the sidelines cheering for her teammates ever since. She will work on healing and playing professionally next year.
“I think that basketball has always been my identity, and it gave me opportunity to just find who I am outside of basketball,” Perdue said. “And I’m glad that I had people around me to support me to lean on.”
Arizona has at least two more games this season. They will travel to Utah to take on the Utes for the second time this season. The first meeting was a one-point loss in McKale Center to start conference play. It was a game that made the Wildcats feel like they could compete in this league despite whatever shortcomings they might have. A two-game winning streak would only make that more real heading into the conference tournament next week.
“It was a one-point game and we missed 20-something layups, and that’s a real number,” Burke said. “So going into there, knowing that we have to play really well, they’re a really good team, but also the fact that we can win. So let’s go act like it. Let’s go execute well. Let’s go be some road warriors, see if we can’t win another one before we go to Kansas City, where anything can happen.”
