With their NCAA Tournament hopes hanging by a thread, the last thing the Arizona Wildcats could afford was a loss to the Houston Cougars. UH has won a single Big 12 game this season. It almost became two until Arizona went on a fourth-quarter run and got the help of a foul call with a second to go in overtime to win 74-72.
“Houston played a really good game,” Arizona head coach Adia Barnes said. “I think they’re a lot better than their record shows. I think…(head coach Ronald) Hughey has them playing really hard, and they outplayed us for, I’d say, 37 minutes of the game. If it wouldn’t have been for (Eylia) Love getting into foul trouble and us getting a couple calls our way, we don’t win this game.”
One of those calls made the final difference. Arizona inbounded the ball with the score tied at 72 and three seconds to go in overtime. Skylar Jones drove. Bodies ended up on the floor and a foul was called on Houston’s Summer Bostock.
The camera view wasn’t clear on television, but Hughey argued vehemently. He may well have had a point, but it didn’t matter. Jones walked to the line and sank two free throws to put Arizona up and determine the final margin.
“Those are tough calls always, either way,” Barnes said. “Obviously, if I’m Houston, I would hate that call. I’m Arizona. I love that call…I think there was a lot of physicality the whole game, but I think Sky driving so hard downhill with the left hand, I think it put pressure on the referees to make a call. And I think whether it’s moving or not…there’s a lot of fouls that get called and don’t get called, but I think for us, it went our way and we’re lucky. I think those things and a couple other things that bounced our way gave us the chance to win today.”
For Jones, it was the cherry on top of a big second-half performance after the first didn’t go her way. She was 0 for 3 from the floor with no points after the second quarter. She hadn’t been to the line at all, either. Her only positive stats were two steals. She also had a turnover. The Wildcats were down by nine.
The sophomore guard ended with 16 points on 4 for 9 shooting from the floor. She was 8 for 8 from the line. She added three assists and five steals.
“I think in the first half, she got a little bit frustrated,” Barnes said. “And, honestly, in the first half, our guards didn’t have any points because they couldn’t get open on the perimeter. They were having a really hard time getting open and getting denied and kind of manhandled on the perimeter. And I think they woke up a little bit. Much more aggressive in the second half. We tried to run some isolation plays for Sky in the first half, but they were pushing her out of the paint, pushing her into uncomfortable areas, and we couldn’t capitalize off of it. And I think that there was a little bit of frustration defensively that kind of carried over to offense.”
The only one of Arizona’s guards who scored much in the first half was Jada Williams. She had 11 of her 18 points in the first 20 minutes. She added a rebound and two assists, but she also had three turnovers in 14 minutes on the court.
“Jada was getting a little frustrated because the wings weren’t getting open, which rightfully so, because she’s getting pressure and having to hold the ball,” Barnes said. “So I think second half, we just did things that kind of alleviated pressure a little bit. And I think (Houston) got a little bit tired, because they’re short numbers, to be honest, and we were able to capitalize off of that.”
It didn’t happen immediately in the second half. The Cougars still had an 11-point lead at the end of 30 minutes. They pushed it to 13 at 6:40 in the fourth quarter, but Arizona started chipping away about a minute later.
The Wildcats took their first lead since 2:43 in the first quarter with 47 seconds left in regulation. Breya Cunningham put her team up 61-60 with two of her 17 points. Two free throws by Williams pushed that lead to three points with five seconds to go.
Arizona had fouls to give. Jones gave one of them to take two seconds off the clock. She did everything she could to keep the next 3-point shot from going up, but Love put up an off-balance shot that bounced high off the rim then dropped back through the net.
Arizona still had tenths of a second to try to win it, but a turnover wiped that out. While that didn’t go the Wildcats’ way, Barnes was generally happy with play execution, including the one that would eventually lead to the drive and foul on Jones in overtime.
“I’m proud of also the way that our kids executed stuff down the stretch,” Barnes said. “We ran some plays and we tried to do that tip. So some of those things at the point-four seconds, it’s a very hard situation, because in the past, you’ve always had a lot of athleticism where someone can tip it. At this point, I was like, ‘Okay, who’s gonna tip it?’ We don’t really have the personnel for someone to sky in the tip of a last-second shot. We’ve won games like that, but it’s hard. Putting Isis (Beh) in that situation is very hard. But besides that sideline and baseline, we executed plays and we scored off of them, so I’m proud of them for being able to do that. That’s an area of growth that we could not do a couple months ago. So we are progressing and getting better.”
Almost all of Arizona’s scoring came from four of the five starters. All but five of the Wildcats’ 74 points came from Isis Beh, Williams, Cunningham, and Jones.
Williams ended with 18 points on 6 of 15 field goal shooting and 3 of 4 foul shooting. She added two rebounds and two assists.
Beh tied Williams for the team high with 18 points to go with nine rebounds. She shot 50 percent from the field and hit all of her free throws. She also had two assists and a steal.
Cunningham, who often complains that she just can’t quite get a double-double, had one in regulation. She ended with 17 points and 15 boards. She also had two blocks and one steal while only committing three fouls in 38 minutes.
It was the seventh time in Arizona’s 29 games that Cunningham has played over 30 minutes. She has often been limited this season due to foul trouble.
Freshman guard Mailien Rolf was the only starter not to score, but she tied Jones with a team high three assists. She added two rebounds and three steals.
“I’m happy with our resilience,” Barnes said. “We were down. Our backs were against the wall, and we found a way to come back from a 13-point deficit. That shows a lot of grit, and that shows some heart, but we have to have that heart the whole game.”
Arizona (17-12, 8-8 Big 12) returns to McKale Center on Tuesday, Feb. 25 for senior night. The Wildcats take on Texas Tech (14-15, 3-11 Big 12) in their fourth game in 10 days. It will be their final home game of the season unless they end up hosting games in the WBIT.
For now, the dream is still the NCAA Tournament. It was a battle, but they kept that dream alive in Houston.