Arizona women’s basketball was looking to move to 5-0 on the season in an early week matchup against Northern Colorado. The 84-58 win was the biggest win in the Becky Burke era to this point.
Northern Colorado
got up on the Wildcats early with back-to-back threes from Erin Powell to go up 6-0. Daniah Trammell had the response with Arizona’s first basket.
MJ Jurado followed up with consecutive layups, one of them being an and-one. Tramell then gave the Wildcats the lead with a layup and two free throws.
Tanyuel Welch made a jumper to extend the Arizona lead, but the Bears responded with a three-point play to tie the game. Kamryn Kitchen hit the first three pointer for Arizona to give the lead back at the end of the first quarter.
Nora Francois got the first basket for Arizona to start the second quarter. This was followed up with a layup by Blessing Adebanjo.
Starting to swing the flow of the game towards the Wildcats, Kitchen had a fast break layup to give Arizona a five-point lead. After not starting the game, Lani Cornfield scored her first points at the charity stripe.
It seemed like once Cornfield entered the game the energy for the Wildcats on the court turned up to an 11. In a series of layups by Trammell, Sumayah Sugapong, and Cornfield, Arizona got the lead up to 15.
Arizona took a 12-point lead into the half. Trammell added onto her strong first half performance by getting six straight points out of the half.
“I just try to keep it simple,” said Trammell “As a freshman, it is kind of overwhelming being in the game, but I’m nothing without my teammates. They know my favorite spots on the court, they just gave me the ball and they put me in the best position to be successful.”
Micky Perdue scored her first and only basket midway through the third quarter. It was her lowest scoring performance of the season, but it did not worry Burke.
“That’s growth for Micky, because she could have taken ten shots if she wanted to, right?” said Burke. “She was moving the ball. I’ll take that all day, every day, she was plus 11 on the stat sheet.”
Sugapong started to pick up the intensity with a coast-to-coast layup, and then a block and steal on the defensive side. Kitchen then became the second Wildcat to get into double figures after hitting back-to-back threes.
It was her best game of the young season, and the confidence she played with was through the roof.
“It feels really good,” Kitchen said. “Just being confident, my teammates trusted me and passed me the ball, having confidence to hit the shots.”
In the fourth quarter, Jurado was the player to step up and start to close in on the win. She became the third player for Arizona to get into double figures.
“Just kind of playing as a team, rely on your teammates and push the pace and then it all flows, and I think we did a pretty good job,” said Jurado.
Cornfield became the fourth player to reach double figures for Arizona after a pair of free throws. The Wildcats would hold Northern Colorado to zero points in the final three minutes as they dominated the fourth quarter.
One of the bigger factors that led to the win for Arizona was the production from the bench, which had 42 points.
“We kept the ball moving,” Burke said. “We pushed it with tremendous pace, which allowed us to shoot a lot of layups tonight. We haven’t struggled in that area, but to dominate in this capacity against a team that tried to keep us out of the paint spoke volumes about the execution.”
Every player that came into the game for Arizona scored, as it was a complete team effort. Trammell finished with 22 points, which was followed by Kitchen with 16.
Cornfield led the Wildcats in assists with six, and Sugapong led in rebounds with ten. For Burke, it was a complete game for her team.
“That was probably the ultimate team win that we’ve had so far this season,” said Burke. “We talked about it in the locker room, everybody ate a little bit tonight and everybody had their moments.”
The Wildcats also had 22 total assists, which is something that Burke appreciated from her team. Looking for the extra pass helped with the offensive flow.
“That was something we wrote on the board in pregame, like the balls got moved today, to have 22 assists on 32 made field goals,” said Burke “If we can do that the rest of the way, we’ll be just fine.”
Arizona now moves to 5-0 on the season and awaits its next opponent in CSU Bakersfield on Saturday night. They will play right after the men’s team takes on Norfolk State, one of the rare times both teams play on the same day.
“I’m all about a good little doubleheader,” said Burke. “Our men are in a league of their own. We’ll come in and breathe, breathe the same air as them. They’re a tremendous program and team right now, so we’re very humbled to share a gym with them and share a game day with them.”
