The score may not have exposed it, but Arizona’s 84-48 victory over Chicago State (0-5) once again showed that the Wildcats (5-0) have some work to do when it comes to ball security. The team gave the ball away 20 times in the dominant win at the Jones Convocation Center in Chicago, Ill.
Head coach Adia Barnes played her bench liberally. Twelve of the 13 available players got into the game in the first 20 minutes. Only Sahnya Jah did not get on the floor until the second half, but the reserves played long stretches together. Chicago native Skylar Jones was the only Arizona starter to play more than 16 minutes.
“A really good time to play everybody and get everybody in, get some minutes, get some experience,” Barnes said. “And after a long trip, that was the intent of the trip, to play everybody, work on some things. And we definitely have to get better, but it was good to see some people have some really good quality minutes.”
The Wildcats also struggled with fouls despite the starters not playing a lot of minutes. Breya Cunningham picked up four in 15 minutes of play. Jones and Mailien Rolf had three each in 20 minutes. Jorynn Ross was whistled four times in just nine minutes on the court.
Barnes was more concerned about what led up to the fouls, but she also saw the benefit of making those mistakes in game situations.
“Sometimes these teams are really hard to play against because there’s no offense, and they just drive it at you, and they’re really aggressive,” Barnes said. “But I was concerned just like at our bad positioning, like in our press, that led to layups or that’s leading to fouls. So that’s stuff where you want the minutes, because when you get the minutes and you’re able to show, ‘Hey, these 10 minutes, this is what you did.’ The game is a good teacher. So I think that that’s one of the things that’s great about playing a lot of players, is you have that game film versus practice film to show, ‘Okay, in this situation, this is what you’re doing wrong.’ And I think that’s a really good teacher. Film never lies.”
None of the Wildcats’ mistakes were enough for the Cougars to keep it close. Chicago State was simply overmatched. Arizona led 26-13 after the first quarter and never let the home team into the game. The Wildcats held CSU under 10 points in both the second and fourth quarters.
Arizona shot 43.9 percent from the floor despite going 5 for 22 from the 3-point line. The visitors out-rebounded Chicago State 57-28 and grabbed 20 offensive boards. They gave up only 13 points off their 20 turnovers while scoring 24 points off the 20 turnovers they forced. Their bench outscored the Cougars’ reserves 46-10.
Despite some foul trouble late in the game, Cunningham led the Wildcats in scoring with 14 points. She added five rebounds, two steals, and two blocks to her stat line.
“She’s been doing well,” Barnes said. “I think she’s just using her body so well, finishing so well. We have to get a little bit better defensively, but she’s definitely improved so much.”
Rolf paced Arizona on the boards. The freshman guard grabbed 10 rebounds to go with her seven points, one assist, one block, and one steal. However, she was one of the players who struggled with turnovers. She ended with four giveaways in her 20 minutes on the court.
Barnes was most concerned about the turnovers that showed a lack of working together, like those during handoffs between post players and guards, and the general number of turnovers in the post. Eleven of the 20 turnovers were by Arizona’s post players. Almost half of those were by Jah, who had five in 14 minutes.
Several turnovers came on traveling calls. Barnes believes those are correctable.
“A lot of it’s fundamentals, jump stopping, not shuffling their feet,” Barnes said. “Those are fundamentals. So it tells me we need to keep on working on getting our players better, keep working on our skill development that we work on.”
Cunningham joined Swann, Jones, and Erin Tack as Arizona’s double-digit scorers. Swann followed up her 19-point output against UNLV with 12 points against the Cougars. She went 3 for 8 from the floor, hitting two of her four 3-point shots. She hit all four of her free throws. She had five rebounds and an assist but also contributed three of Arizona’s turnovers in 20 minutes of play.
After the UNLV game, Barnes joked that Swann sometimes made up her own plays, but she’s impressed by both the freshman’s scoring ability and her desire to improve.
“She’s scoring out of it, so I think she’s definitely bought into it,” Barnes said. “But she’s just a freshman, so she’ll forget things…She’s a great kid. She wants to be good. She’s so coachable. So, the mistakes she makes, I can live with.”
Jones was next up with 11 points in 20 minutes on the court. She went 4 for 8 from the floor but missed all four of her 3-point shots. She added four rebounds, two assists, and a team-high four steals.
Tack made a living off free throws to score 10 points. She hit 6 of 10 free throws and went 2 for 2 from the field. The former walk-on who tore her ACL just days after joining the team last year did her damage in 12 minutes of play. She added a rebound and a steal.
Montaya Dew also continued her comeback from an ACL injury. The first-year player waited over 18 months to get on the court with the Wildcats after graduating from high school a semester early and then getting injured.
Dew scored seven points and led the team in plus/minus at 27. She also led the team in rebounds with eight and tied Jada Williams for the team high in assists with three. Dew added two blocks and a steal. She had no turnovers and didn’t commit a foul despite playing a team-high 24 minutes.
Freshman Katarina Knežević joined Dew in filling the positive stat columns. The forward played a career-high 17 minutes. She scored six points on 3-for-5 shooting. She added three rebounds, two assists, one block, and one steal. She didn’t commit a foul and had just one turnover.
“She’s been hitting those corner threes,” Barnes said. “It’s her spot…The turnover was while she was driving in traffic. So that’s good to show on film. Hey, the paint’s really congested. Jump stop. Kick it out.”
Chicago State was led in scoring by Aiyanna Culver with 12 points. Josie Hill had 11 points and a game-high nine rebounds.
Arizona continues its games on the road with a stop in Flagstaff to play NAU on Wednesday, Nov. 20 at 6 p.m. MST. That game will be streamed on ESPN+.
Lead photo courtesy of Arizona Athletics