After a close and heartbreaking loss to Arizona State on Saturday, Arizona women’s basketball was looking to get back in the win column against Colorado.
“We were in a position to win it, and then we did a couple silly things where we gave them some hope,” head coach Becky Burke said after the loss to ASU.
The mission today was to limit turnovers and make sure the “silly things” did not follow them from Saturday’s game.
While the Wildcats were able to limit the turnovers and force Colorado into 25 turnovers, Arizona could not find a way to pull out the victory and the Buffaloes left Tucson with a 78-70 win.
The turnovers were huge for Arizona. In Boulder, the Wildcats forced 13 turnovers but only five of those came on steals, keeping them from exploiting the transition game. This time, Noelani Cornfield had six steals all by herself and the team ended with 12. That led to 31 points off turnovers and 20 fast break points.
Sumayah Sugapong started the scoring for Arizona with the first eight points of the game. Cornfield was the second Wildcat to score after she hit a 3 to cut Colorado’s lead to three.
After her third 3 of the first quarter, Sugapong was up to 11. Add in a Cornfield buzzer beater jumper, and Arizona had cut Colorado’s lead to four going into the second quarter.
“I thought Sumayah came out and she was being aggressive like she has been for the last month or so,” Burke said.
A steal by Nora Francois led to another Cornfield jumper to start the second quarter. Tanyuel Welch was then able to get to the line to tie the game at 23.
The Wildcats got their first lead of the game after Sugapong got a steal and Cornfield found Welch in transition for an easy bucket. After going up 29-28, Colorado quickly got the lead back with an easy layup.
The Buffaloes went into halftime with a one point lead. Arizona had forced 15 turnovers in the first half, keeping it within striking distance.
Sugapong continued her shooting success from behind the arc with her fourth 3 of the game to start the second half.
An unfortunate series of events unfolded for the Wildcats late in the third. Sugapong picked up her fourth foul of the game and also picked up a technical. Her night ended right there and then after having an amazing game up to that point.
“I wrapped my arm around her and tried to teach her and patted her on the back and talk her through this stuff, but it’s hurting our team, and it’s not the first time it’s happened this year, so it’s a compliment to her in the fact that it is so impactful when she does stuff like that and then she can’t be on the floor because of that,” Burke said.
Arizona pushed through the adversity of losing a key scorer by getting points from other places, including MJ Jurado and Molly Ladwig, but it was still mostly about Cornfield. The guard hit her second buzzer beater, this time from deep to give Arizona a one-point lead going into the fourth quarter.
“I got to do whatever I got to do to try to get a win, but it’s always nice when you have your crowd behind you,” said Cornfield.
A 6-0 run by Arizona to start the fourth began with back-to-back baskets by Ladwig. Then a Jurado fastbreak bucket put the crowd into a frenzy.
“I hope this just launches her into an upward trajectory that we’ll build off,” said Burke on Ladwig’s performance.
The Wildcats used solid defense to build a seven-point lead halfway through the fourth quarter. Following a Francois and-one play, Colorado went on a 9-2 run to tie the game.
Ladwig made one more layup before Colorado continued its run. The Buffaloes ended the game on a 18-3 run to steal the victory from Arizona.
“This is a group that I think what they’re doing and how they’re continuing to compete speaks volumes about their character,” said Burke. “They’ve just shown some good character and toughness down the stretch.”
Arizona will travel to Baylor to play the Bears on Saturday before returning to Tucson for the home finale against Houston. The Wildcats will honor Micky Perdue, Francois, and Cornfield on senior day against the Cougars.