On Tuesday, Arizona women’s basketball head coach Becky Burke talked about how she “loved me a good kids’ day game.” On Wednesday morning, the Wildcats held on to defeat Eastern Kentucky 87-83 in front of thousands of Tucson school kids at McKale Center.
“It was amazing,” Burke said. “The kids were great. It’s a different vibe. It’s a different feel. I’m so appreciative of all the schools that took the time. It’s a lot to get kids on a bus and get them out here and feed them and make sure they behave
and do all those things.”
The Wildcats looked to be in control of the game for much of it. They led by 12 with just over five minutes to go, but EKU didn’t go away. The Colonels went on a 7-2 run to cut lead to five, then kept at it.
After hitting a free throw with 1:52 to go, Zyniah Thomas missed the second. Arizona knocked the rebound out of bounds, and the renewed possession for EKU turned into a three. The advantage was down to a single point.
“I think at the end of the day, I’m really glad we’re back in the win column,” Burke said. “I mean, whether you win by one or 30 or 40, we need to win this basketball game, and ultimately, that’s what we did. So I’m excited for them, and I’m proud of them for that. Am I proud of how it kind of played itself out down the stretch and in the fourth quarter? No, obviously that’s frustrating, but at this point with this team, we need to win basketball games, and we did that today.”
Arizona hit free throws down the stretch to secure the win. It was a huge improvement over Sunday’s loss to New Mexico when the Wildcats went 17 for 27 from the line on the way to a three-point loss. On Wednesday, they hit 19 of 24 foul shots. Starting point guard Lani Cornfield led the way with an 8-for-10 day at the line.
It didn’t start as well as Wildcat fans might like. As has been Arizona’s tendency, it fell behind the visiting Colonels early. EKU led for most of the first quarter and pushed their lead to as many as eight points, but the Wildcats had a one-point advantage after 10 minutes.
Cornfield took it upon herself to get the offense going. She had eight points and an assist in the first quarter but picked up her second foul with 6:27 to go in the half and had to go to the bench.
Despite missing their starting point guard, Arizona had a strong second frame. A combination of Micky Perdue’s scoring and the all-around spark of Tanyuel Welch helped the Wildcats go into the half with a five-point lead.
Her contributions and the foul trouble of both Sumayah Sugapong and Kamryn Kitchen gave Welch the opportunity to start the second half for the second straight contest. She became even more critical when Cornfield picked up her third foul with seven minutes to go in the third, shrinking Arizona’s pool of guards who could play freely on the defensive end.
“A big concern, because we’re not—the dynamic changes so much when Lani is on the floor, obviously,” Burke said. “But I thought we did a much better job handling her not being on the floor for a significant amount of time today than we did a couple games ago. So, I was happy with that…but it’s a big deal specifically with Lani just because the ball is in her hand so much, and she’s such a playmaker for others, you really see, I think, the biggest drop. Not that she’s better or worse than anybody else, but from just a pace and poise standpoint when she’s not on the floor.”
Welch had four points, a team-high four rebounds, and an assist in the first half. She finished with seven points, 11 rebounds, three assists, and one steal in 33 minutes of play. The rebounds tied a career high set when she played for the Memphis Tigers.
Welch was also very effective on the defensive end. While many of her teammates struggled with fouls, she managed to play more then three-quarters of the game without picking up a foul.
“T gives us length and athleticism on the perimeter that we are going to be relying on heavily from this point forward, and we have so far this season,” Burke said. “But her ability to maybe take a bad angle and make up for it, because she’s so dang athletic. I tell her all the time, I would never be as athletic as her in 10 lifetimes, but to be able to cover ground and make up for mistakes and do some of the things, from an athleticism standpoint that she does. I think now what’s coming along for T is learning when to be solid, when to like, chill out for a second, and when to be aggressive, because there’s a time and place for both.”
For Welch, it’s a point of emphasis and pride.
“I feel like as far as my defense, I came a long way,” Welch said. “I always been a good on-ball defender. I struggled as far as being off the ball and helping my teammates. So I feel like I’ve really improved in that over time. I feel like one of the best things about my game is I play both sides of the ball. Like, yeah, I could put the ball in the basket, but one thing that I thrive off of is my defense. My defense leads to offense, not just for myself, but for my teammates, as well.”
Perdue led the Wildcats with 27 points on 11-of-18 shooting, including 5 of 9 makes from 3-point distance. It was a strong rebound game for her after scoring just five points on 1-of-9 shooting in the loss to New Mexico. She added two rebounds and one assist. The lone drawback was three turnovers.
Arizona didn’t have an excessive number of turnovers as a team, though. That’s something that has been a point of emphasis since the loss to Southern two games ago.
The Wildcats ended with 15 turnovers, including some offensive fouls. The Colonels were very efficient when turning those into points. The visitors had 19 points off those 15 turnovers while only turning the ball over seven times themselves.
Cornfield wasn’t one of those having issues with giveaways, though. The grad student had zero turnovers against eight assists. She has just one turnover in the past two games after giving the ball away nine times against Southern in Arizona’s first loss of the season.
“It really opens the floor for everybody,” Welch said. “You know, she’s a threat herself. Micky’s a threat. I can be a threat. So for her, just like sharing the ball, it creates confusion within the defense. You know, it’s like, pick your poison at that point.”
In addition to setting teammates up eight times, Cornfield had 22 points on 6-for-11 shooting from the field and 80 percent shooting from the line. She added five rebounds.
Daniah Trammell started the game after coming off the bench last time. She was Arizona’s third player with double-digit points. She ended with 11 points on 50 percent shooting from the field and 100 percent accuracy from the line. She also had three rebounds, one assist, one steal, and one block in 25 minutes. She, Perdue, Nora Francois, and Sumayah Sugapong were the four Wildcats with three turnovers each, accounting for 80 percent of their total giveaways.
Francois played with a mask on after taking an elbow to the face in practice. Despite her turnovers, she still had six points on 2-of-3 shooting from the floor and 2-of-3 shooting from the line. She added four rebounds and one assist in just over 14.5 minutes of play.
The Wildcats improved to 7-2 on the year. EKU drops to 5-2 according to the NCAA. The association does not count the two wins the Colonels had against non-Division I opponents.
Arizona will return to evening play when Chicago State comes to town on Monday, Dec. 15 at 6 p.m. MST.
