(Tucson, AZ) The students from local schools came out in force for the annual School Day at McKale Center.
Prairie View A&M (1-3) came town to face the Wildcats (4-0) w3ith the loud and raucous crowd.
The Cats came into the game ranked #24 in the USA Today Coaches Poll. This was the first tine since 2004.
Dominique McBryde started the scoring off the opening tip. Prarie View A&M finally got on the scoreboard until 5:09 left in the first quarter. By that time, the Wildcat has racked up fifteen points.
The Panthers got their second basket at the 3:19 by Diana Rosental and 18-4 deficit grew by the possession.
PVAMU got a breakaway layup off a lazy pass from Lucia Alonso to beat the buzzer and get the Panthers in double digits for the game. Wildcats led 20-11 at the end of the first quarter.
Zona shot 53% (8-15) in the first quarter while holding the Panthers to 255 (4-16). Surprisingly the rebounds were basically even with the Cats holding a slight edge 11-10. Arizona was the taller team and took advantage of their size with twelve points in the paint.
This years Wildcat team has the outside shooters that previous teams lacked. Back to back treys from Tara Manumaleuga showed off her range and accuracy.
Arizona was up 31-20 at the 4:30 mark of the second quarter. There was a sense that the Cats should be up by a larger margin, but nine turnovers kept the Panthers within striking distance.
Coming off the big win at Texas, it was interesting to see how Arizona would respond.
ESPNW Player of the Week Aari McDonald sank two consecutive three pointers and San Thomas added another to give Zona at 42-22 lead just before the half.
Cats shot 52% (16-31) and a 50% (7-14) from beyond the arc. Arizona hit the boards better in the second quarter 13-5.
The Cats had balanced scoring with McDonald and Reese leading the way with eight points apiece. Thomas was perfect from the field (2-2) as well as from three (1-1).
Tatyana Perez had six points in the opening half for the Panthers. No Prarie View player had more than three rebounds.
Amari Carter stole the inbounds pass after a Sevval Gul layup to put Arizona 48-22 at 8:14 in the third quarter.
Helena Pueyo has shown that she will be a force this season with her sharpshooting (4-5) hit a three ball with 5:15 left in the third period.
Arizona had double the score 60-30 with 3:22 and a timeout.
Coach Adia Barnes used a lot of players in the game with several lineup combinations. The depth on this team will certainly play dividends when the PAC-12 Conference play begins next month.
Zona had a 60-37 lead heading into the final period. The Wildcats only outscored Prarie View 18-15 in the third quarter. This has been a concern of Barnes this season.
Arizona continued to dominate the glass with a 37-22 advantage. Reese, McDonald and Pueyo each had twelve points after three quarters.
McBryde hit a three pointer to start the scoring in the fourth quarter as she did for the game.
Prairie View was gassed as their players used a lot of energy trying to keep up with the bigger and taller Cats.
The lead grew to thirty 69-39 as the Wildcats continued to put the hammer down.
As expected, Arizona won with ease 83-48.
Todays attendance was 8,542.
Despite the victory, Barnes was critical on defenses lapses, but praised the overall effort singling out performances by Thomas, Reese and Pueyo.
Arizona takes on Montana Grizzlies on November 24th in McKale Center.
