The Arizona Wildcats continue to battle both their opponents and themselves. That battle played into a hard-fought 74-60 loss to No. 14 Baylor women’s basketball in Waco, Tex. on Saturday night.
“I was really, really happy with that 40 minutes and what they showed and who they were throughout that game,” said Arizona head coach Becky Burke. “Going into the locker room with not a ton of complaints and a game that we feel like, honestly, we put ourselves in a position to win fairly late into it…Would be really, really easy for them to be quitting in games and stop playing as hard as they are. I mean, this group battles. They fight, they play their butts off, and I’m proud of them as their head coach.”
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Arizona was within single digits several times in the final quarter. Fouls kept them from getting closer. One of those fouls caused Burke to pull fifth-year guard Lani Cornfield and sit her for the final 4:53 of the game.
With 4:55 left in the game, Cornfield made a jumper that pulled the Wildcats within nine points for the third time in the final quarter. She then gestured at one of the Baylor players and the whistle was blown.
It wasn’t the first time that an Arizona player has been called for a technical in such a situation. Others have been extremely demonstrative after made buckets but weren’t called for it, as well. Burke has had enough, though, especially since she has already had to discipline Cornfield on several occasions this season.
“I’m done with the immaturity,” Burke said. “It’s not just Lani. There’s a couple people on our team that have done that multiple times this year. Like, you made a shot. So what? You know what I mean? It’s so immature, it’s so selfish, in my opinion. This is nothing against Lani. It’s like doing that and that act in a 9-point game with four-and-a-half minutes left at Baylor is immaturity, selfishness, and I’m just not gonna tolerate it from this point forward. So it wouldn’t matter who it was—not just Lani—but that’s a very me, me, me, type of gesture after you make a shot. Your team’s down. And I’m not—that’s not how I roll.”
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There were some players who showed exceptional maturity, though. One of them was one of the youngest on the squad.
Molly Ladwig got her fifth start of the season and her second straight. Her 33 minutes on the floor were a career high. She tied her career high with 10 points on 40 percent shooting. She joined Cornfield and fellow freshman Daniah Trammell as the only Wildcats in double figures. Trammell and Cornfield tied for the team high with 11 points each.
Ladwig was second on the team with six rebounds and tied Cornfield for second-highest in assists with three. Late in the game, she showed solid defense by shutting down a much-larger post player simply by holding position and staying vertical. She ended with four fouls, but it certainly wasn’t because of that play.
“Molly is the epitome of what we are going to be about at Arizona in our women’s basketball program,” Burke said. “She is mature. She is an elite teammate. She is extremely coachable. She does everything you ask her to do, the way that you ask her to do it with no questions asked. She takes care of business on and off the court. She’s somebody that I’m gonna play her the rest of the way out, because that’s somebody I’m gonna build around. You know, I couldn’t be more excited for her. That’s somebody that my stamp of approval is definitely on. She’s a freshman. She’s got to get quicker, she’s got to get more explosive, she’s got to work on her shot. She’s got to do all those things, but we talk about a culture, what we’re building here. Molly’s gonna be the center of that.”
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While they may not have scored in double figures, Arizona got contributions from Blessing ‘Adde’ Adebanjo, Tanyuel Welch, and Nora Francois, as well.
Welch led the team in rebounds with nine boards. She also contributed seven points and one assist. Adebanjo had eight points, five rebounds, one block, and one steal. Francois led the team with four assists. She added four points, two rebounds, and two steals.
Arizona started the game well by turning the Bears over and getting to the free throw line. The Wildcats turned Baylor over five times. Four of those takeaways were from steals, allowing UA to score six points off turnovers in the opening 10 minutes. At the same time, the visitors were going 9 for 9 from the stripe and went up by as many as 10. While the Wildcats had a hiccup at the end of the frame, the end result was a 22-15 lead.
As often happens for the ‘Cats, they couldn’t sustain it. They scored just eight points in the second quarter while Baylor got even better. The Bears put up 15 points in the first 10 minutes, then followed it with 23 in the second. They cut down on the turnovers and only sent Arizona to the line once.
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“We gave up a 3 to end the half,” Burkes said. “Got ourselves in foul trouble to end the second quarter, which is something that’s like, it’s just been plaguing us all season. We try to play so hard, and it’s just so hard to find that balance of being so undersized and just still trying to make things happen. And unfortunately, we get penalized a lot for that, and that’s on us. We got to fix that. And some games we do, and the games that we don’t, generally will put teams in the bonus really, really early.”
Arizona could have gone away. Baylor came out of the locker room on fire and pushed the lead out to 18 points on several occasions. The Bears were up by 15 with 10 minutes to go.
Arizona scored the first six points of the fourth quarter. Ladwig hit a jumper, then Cornfield followed with a jumper of her own. Adebanjo’s second-chance bucket with eight minutes left in the game cut Baylor’s lead to single digits for the first time since 9:07 in the third quarter.
The final nine-point margin came with 2:18 on the clock when Ladwig’s offensive rebound led to a 3-pointer by Sugapong. Arizona didn’t score again until there was just 41 seconds left in the game.
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The Wildcats return home for Tuesday’s senior night festivities against Houston. At 2-14 in the Big 12, Arizona is one game better than the Cougars in the standings. UH was dominated by Arizona State to the tune of an 81-56 score on Saturday in Tempe.
