Freshman Lauryn Swann got her groove back, though.
There’s a tried and true method of making life hell for Arizona women’s basketball. Get Breya Cunningham in early foul trouble. It has hurt the Wildcats even in wins. It definitely hurt them against the Utah Utes in a 69-48 blowout loss in McKale Center on New Year’s Eve.
Cunningham had two fouls after just 98 ticks of the clock. Both were on the offensive end while setting screens. She was headed to the bench.
Arizona’s dominant post ended the day with two points, two rebounds, two steals, and five fouls in 13 minutes on the court.
Even under the best of circumstances, Utah is a strong offensive team. These were far from the best of circumstances. Still, it could have been worse. Arizona was only down by seven after the first quarter despite its best player being on the bench almost the entire 10 minutes.
The Wildcats continued to struggled from the field, hitting just one shot in the first 2:07 of the second quarter. Barnes had to put Cunningham back in. She entered the game at the 7:53 mark and got the Wildcats’ second bucket of the second quarter just over a minute later.
It was a big risk, though. And it didn’t pay off.
Cunningham picked up her third foul—another offensive violation—when she lowered her shoulder and went into the defender on the way to the basket. There were still over three minutes left in the half.
“For us, she’s 67 percent and we need to get the ball to Breya,” Arizona head coach Adia Barnes said. “She’s one of the people that needs to have…the most shots on our team. So when she’s out, it hurts us, because there’s no way to shrink the defense. So when Breya has the ball, she demands a double team, and players get shots. When she’s not in, we don’t have a low post presence…so they just stay on the perimeter, and then the guards can’t get shots.”
The rest of the team continued to struggle on the offensive end of the court. While Cunningham’s absence was a big part of it, it wasn’t the only thing that went wrong offensively.
“Couldn’t run offense,” Barnes said. “I don’t know why we were so passive. I don’t know why we weren’t attacking, because we know individually, Utah is not the best defensive team. They are very good as a team on defense, but one-on-one, we should have been able to attack. I mean, they had no problem attacking us…I don’t know why we weren’t going downhill. It’s the same things we do, and I think we have gotten better offensively. And today, it didn’t show that, and some of that is not executing a play. One person not running the play. Some people don’t know the plays still, and so that’s on me. It’s my fault I’m playing them when they don’t know the plays.”
Skylar Jones also picked up two fouls in the first half, putting two of Arizona’s top three scorers in foul trouble. With lineups that often included Isis Beh and Montaya Dew, both of whom are hesitant to shoot, it was on Williams to get points for the Wildcats.
Williams had eight points on 4-for-10 shooting in the opening half. Arizona desperately needed the points. On the other hand, four of her six missed shots came from 3-point distance where she has struggled. She was 4 for 6 from inside the arc.
Arizona was down by 12 at the half. Neither team played well for the first several minutes. Utah was shooting 28 percent at one point while Arizona was 0 for 8.
Barnes decided to go young. It worked to some degree.
Lauryn Swann, who had scored a total of one point on 0-for-8 shooting in her last three games, finally got her groove back. The freshman guard went off in the third quarter, scoring all nine of Arizona’s points. She ended the day with a team- and career-high 22 points on 8-for-11 shooting in 22 minutes.
“After I saw that first shot go in, it was like a sigh of relief,” Swann said. “Like, ‘Okay, back in the flow of it.’ And I guess just the confidence just stayed throughout the whole game.”
Williams was the only other Wildcat to score in double figures. She ended with 11 points on 5-for-15 shooting, but she missed all six of her 3-point attempts. She added two rebounds, three assists, and one steal.
Barnes noted that Williams is being asked to do a lot, especially when her teammates are dealing with foul trouble.
“It’s deflating, because I’m asking her to go guard the point guard full court, who was really fast,” Barnes said. “I’m saying, ‘Go run the offense and keep the ball for 37 minutes of the game, and then go shoot,’ and it’s a lot, and it’s not sustainable.”
Williams was visibly upset after the game, but she didn’t think she’s was being asked to do anything she’s not capable of doing.
“I’m passionate,” Williams said. “I put my whole life into this. I’ve sacrificed a lot. So I know my team feeds off my energy. So if I’m down, then that means we’re really down. So I just try to focus on that. Just that’s a maturity thing for me. I’ve always played up. I’m a point guard. My job is not to always score. It is to assist, to have good energy, things like that. So I don’t think it’s pressure. I think that’s just, that’s my role. That’s my job.”
Barnes said that the best way to help Williams is for the coaches to get other people ready. In addition to Swann’s big game, she once again brought up Mailien Rolf as a player who is earning more minutes by her play, her demeanor, and her general improvement.
“I moved (Williams) off the ball for a second, but then it’s like, there has to be other people that can step up and fill those shoes so we can do that,” Barnes said. “And so it’s my job to get some people prepared. And I think that today, who earned more minutes is Mailien. Mailien has been solid, and she’s earned more minutes. She always has a great attitude. She works her butt off. And I think that what young players don’t understand is this. If I’m sitting there sulking and hanging my head, it’s affecting people around you…You have to teach young players. And Mailien doesn’t do that. She doesn’t do that and Lauryn’s learning.”
Barnes was most upset by players making mistakes on the offensive end then not getting back on defense. She again brought up Rolf as an example of a player who doesn’t do that.
“If you look at the Mailien a month ago, what would happen, she’d come in the game, she’d turn the ball over and make fouls right away,” Barnes said. “Now she’s corrected that. She’s gotten better, and now I think there’s more trust. She came in, she’s making shots, she’s making the right read. It’s not about—she doesn’t have to come in and score 15 points. She’s solid. And I think that’s what we’re getting from her, that you never have to question her effort. She’s never going to make a mistake and hang her head or not run back on defense. She’s going to give max effort every time. So that is the type of player I like. And so she’s going to earn more minutes because of that. And so she can make mistakes. You make a mistake, you turn the ball over, you sprint your butt back and go hard.”
At one point, Barnes had Williams, Swann, Rolf, Montaya Dew, and Katarina Knežević on the floor together. She went with a few combinations that included Williams and a crew of less experienced teammates. She was encouraged with what she saw from those groups.
Will fans see more of those combinations?
“Yeah, you will,” Barnes said.
Meanwhile, on the other bench, Utah head coach Gavin Petersen noted that he was able to let his team respond to Arizona’s runs because he isn’t relying on young players. Nine of his 14 players are upperclassmen.
“We have so much experience on our roster that I hold this standard a little higher for them, and my expectation is that they figure it out,” Petersen said.
Barnes will continue trying to figure it out as her team proceeds in Big 12 play.
“We got our butts kicked today,” Barnes said. “Credit to Utah, they did a great job. But I think the disappointing part for me is the controllables, like your attitude, your body language, your work ethic, your mentality on the court, those are controllables, and that should never vary. Now, like, (Williams) is an example. She can be 0 for 7, she can be 7 for 10, and her body language and attitude effort doesn’t change, and that’s why she’s hard to take off the court. I don’t care what the shooting percentage was. It wasn’t her game. A lot of times we’re giving her the ball the last second, but the effort and the talking and the attitude when you miss the shot is what you can control. And I think that the part that I challenged the team on is you can miss shots, but then it’s selfish if you’re just hanging your head and you’re having a bad attitude…It’s selfish because you don’t have to make shots to help us win. You can go get rebounds, you can go play great defense, you can be a communicator and help. So it’s not all predicated on scoring. And I think that if you see a lot of players, it’s just predicated on scoring. And they’re in their head, and then there’s a three on the other end. So those are things that are disappointing, and those are things that I have to change as a coach, because that’s not the standard here.”