(Tucson, AZ) The Wildcats continued their roll after the Oregon hiccup three games ago.
Today the Washington State Cougars came knocking at McKale. Friday night, the Cougars lost at a heartbreaker at ASU 62-59.
Zona started off quickly with a barrage of three pointers from Sam Thomas, Amari Carter and Aari McDonald and were up 17-7 at the media timeout at the 4;13 of the first quarter.
The Wildcats were sizzling at 78% shooting and had a five second call on a Cougar inbound attempt and a ten second violation not getting the ball across the time line.
Arizona doubled up the Cougars 26-13 after one quarter with torrid shooting 11-16 (69%) and created seven turnovers. All the starters scored except Cate Reese.
Great ball movement on the first Cat’s possession of the second quarter with seven passes made before Thomas nailed a three from the left baseline.
This Wildcat team is nothing short of spectacular at McKale and with the City of Tucson getting behind them with the third largest home attendance in the conference it’s no wonder opposing teams now a dread coming to play Arizona.
Although their shooting cooled off a bit (57%), Arizona still had things in control leading 31-19 at the 4:58 point in the second quarter.
Reese got in the scoring column with 3:08 to go till the half, and added another hoop on a baby hook two possessions later.
Everything went well for Zona in the first twenty minutes as they headed to the locker room up 40-27.
The Cat’s defense was spot on forcing ten turnovers with seven steals. Ironically, Arizona didn’t shoot a single free throw in the first half and the Cougars were blanked on three point shooting (0-3).
In the third quarter, the WSU give and go play saw more success but it was inability to stop the Wildcat’s offense and especially from beyond the arc.
At the media timeout with 4:46 left in the third Arizona was up 51-33 starting the second half on a 11-6 run.
Out of the timeout, Jovana Subasic hit the Cougars first three point basket of the game. Thomas followed with a layup for Arizona and the lack of defensive stops continued to be a thorn in WSU’s side.
Washington State showed a little life with two minutes left in the third quarter causing Coach Barnes to call the team’s first timeout to reset the defense. Zona up 53-41.
The threes kept on raining down on WSU as McDonald hit the Wildcats ninth trey of the game. The lead swelled to twenty 66-46 with 6:33 left in the contest.
The entire game, Arizona took the Cougars out of their comfort zone and game plan.
Barnes called off the dogs with a twenty four point lead in the latter stages of the final quarter as Samaj Smith, Mara Mote, Sevval Gul and Bryce Nixon played the final minute of the game.
The fast start what the deciding factor in this win as the Cougars couldn’t catch up after the first quarter. Their inability to hit shot from the perimeter made them one dementional.
McDonald and Thomas paced the Cats attack scoring twenty one and eighteen points respectively on 15-24 shooting (62.5%) and a combined 6-10 from three point land.
Cats in a romp at home 72-57. Attendance was 5,668.
