Arizona routs UC Santa Barbara to stay unbeaten entering Pac-12 play

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Aari McDonald scored 21 points as No. 18 Arizona completed an unbeaten non-conference season Saturday with a 61-42 win over UC Santa Barbara in McKale Center in front of 4,498.

It’s the first time the Wildcats (11-0) have gone undefeated in non-conference play since 1995-96, head coach Adia Barnes’ sophomore season.

Dating back to last season, Arizona has won a school-record 17 straight games, the longest active streak in the country.

Arizona’s average scoring margin is 30.2 this season, but this victory wasn’t as easy as the others despite the lopsided score.

Thanks to five early 3s and some crisp ball movement, the Gauchos led 23-19 with 4:27 left in the second quarter.

Arizona’s defense took over from there, using its press to overwhelm the Gauchos. UCSB (4-8) went scoreless the rest of the period and coughed up the ball five times, leading to easy points the other way.

McDonald swished a pair of free throws to tie the game at 23-all with 3:07 left in the half, then drew a foul in transition that resulted in two more free throws to give the Wildcats the lead.

It only grew from there.

Sam Thomas intercepted a pass in front of the Arizona bench and kicked it ahead to Helena Pueyo, who one-touched a pass underneath to Cate Reese. Her layup put the Wildcats ahead 29-23 at the break—and served as Reese’s only points of the first half.

McDonald, who also had seven rebounds and seven assists, was Arizona’s lone source of offense early on, dropping 15 points in the first half. The redshirt junior extended Arizona’s lead to 42-29, its largest at the time, when she drove for a layup with 2:20 left in the third.

Thomas laid in Reese’s miss at the buzzer to put UA ahead 46-32 heading into the fourth. Thomas had 11 points and three steals. She buried a 3 from the top of the arc to put Arizona up 58-40 with three minutes to play.

Sophomore post Semaj Smith was Arizona’s official player of the game after finishing with nine points, six rebounds, two blocks and a steal on 4-of-5 shooting, including a rare 3-pointer.

UA has only played one major-conference team so far (Texas) but its schedule with stiffen considerably the next few weeks and remain that way the rest of the season, due to the nature of the Pac-12, which features five ranked teams, four of which are in the Top 10.

The Wildcats open Pac-12 play next Sunday at ASU before road games at USC and No. 10 UCLA and a homestand vs. No. 4 Oregon State and No. 3 Oregon.

This story will be updated.

Other notes

• Freshman post Birna Benonysdottir, senior guard Tee Tee Starks, and senior forward Dominique McBryde all missed Saturday’s game with injuries. McBryde (ankle) has missed the last three games but is expected to return for the conference opener. The senior was wearing a walking boot Saturday but is no longer using a scooter to get around. Starks (shoulder) has not played all year.
• Sevval Gül (concussion) returned from a three-game absence and had two points and two rebounds in six minutes.

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