Arizona dominates Washington State for 21st victory of the year

Photo by Jacob Snow/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Punching first is something Adia Barnes and her players talk about often. On Sunday afternoon, that’s exactly what the Arizona Wildcats did. The Washington State Cougars didn’t quite know what hit them out of the gates in the 72-57 Arizona victory.

After a strong night from the 3-point line on Friday night, Arizona started just where they left off on Sunday afternoon. By the 6:33 mark, three Wildcats had already connected from outside. Sam Thomas was one of them, already on her way to one of her best games of the season.

Thomas had 18 points on 6-for-10 shooting including 3 for 5 from outside. She added six assists, four rebounds and four steals. Aari McDonald led the game with 21 points.

Borislava Hristova led the Cougars with 18 points.

Then, there was the defense. Arizona’s first points came off a McDonald steal. Five-foot-six McDonald forced a five-second call guarding Hristova, who stands six feet tall. Minutes later, the Wildcats forced a backcourt violation. At the end of the first quarter, Arizona had foced seven Cougar turnovers and was up 26-13.

The Cougars were connecting on their shots when they were able to shoot. Washington State hit 54.5 percent of their shots. The difference was that Arizona was able to get more looks at the basket. While WSU hit 6 of 11 over the period, UA was going 11 for 16.

Things cooled off a bit for Arizona in the second quarter. The Wildcats’ field goal percentage fell to 42.9 percent. On defense, they were only able to get two steals after coming up with five in the first quarter.

The Cougars settled down. They were able to match their opponent in shots over the second 10 minutes and get to the line four times. They couldn’t make a dent in the deficit from the first quarter, though. When the half ended, WSU still trailed by 13 as Arizona led 40-27.

The Cougars played the Wildcats close over the second half, but were never able to recover from the opening quarter.

This story will be updated.

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