Arizona head coach Adia Barnes is building her program by heavily recruiting overseas. Next season, Arizona will add five players from five different countries. That will bring the total to seven international players from six countries. Wyoming, the Wildcats’ next opponent in the WNIT, knows what it’s like to blend so many different cultures into a successful program. The Cowgirls come to Tucson with a roster featuring 16 players, 10 of whom have come from a total of six different countries to make their basketball homes in Laramie. The Cowgirls parlayed their diverse team into a successful Mountain West power, going 22-8 in the regular season including 13-5 in conference play. After dispatching their first three WNIT opponents, they come into the quarterfinals at 25-8. In the last round, Arizona faced a team that liked to shoot the three. Wyoming isn’t quite as attached to the 3-ball, but they also have some prolific perimeter shooters. The Cowgirls have four players who attempt at least three 3-point shots per game. Marta Gomez leads the quartet with 150 attempts on the year. She also leads in effectiveness, shooting 49 percent from outside the arc. Taylor Rusk has hit 33 percent of her 124 attempts for the season. Quinn Weidemann kicks in 43 percent on her 107 attempts, followed by Karla Erjavec hitting 33 percent of her 99 attempts on the season. Fortunately for the Wildcats, they spent last week preparing for a team that relies even more heavily on the three. Arizona defeated Idaho on Thursday despite the Vandals making 33 percent of their 3-point shots, going 10 for 30. They did it by winning the battle in the paint 36-16 and the turnover battle. The Cowgirls average 11.24 turnovers per game against teams far inferior to the one they will face on Sunday. According to Her Hoop Stats’ ratings, Wyoming faced only one team that was better than Arizona this season—South Dakota State—but they did beat that team. When compared head-to-head, Wyoming is the slightly better offensive team. The game isn’t played on one half of the court, though, and the Wildcats make up for that by being the far superior defensive team. Her Hoops Stats rates Arizona as the No. 36 defensive team, while the service has Wyoming at No. 91. Throughout the season, the Wildcats were typically able to use their superior defense to overcome whatever offensive shortcomings they had. They’ve only improved over the course of the year, so there’s little reason to believe they won’t be able to do it again as long as they limit the fouls they commit. The team will try to do that Sunday at 2 p.m. MST. The game will be live streamed at Arizona Live Stream.<doc-sep>The back of Arizona’s warm-up t-shirts read “#LeavingALegacy.” From the first meeting with the media this summer, Adia Barnes and her players have made that their calling card. It’s not just about today, this season. It’s about building for the future. The WNIT is part of that project. Three postseason games. Three victories. It hadn’t happened for Arizona women’s basketball since 1996 when they won the WNIT. Could they push it to four? The Wyoming Cowgirls stood in the way, but not for very long. Arizona dominated in a 67-45 victory in front of 7,717 fans at McKale Center. They held the Cowgirls to 31.4 percent shooting, including 16.7 percent from outside. “We look like we have a we’re-not-going-to-lose mentality,” Barnes said. “That’s the feeling I have from (the players).” Aari McDonald led all scorers with 25 points. She added six rebounds, four assists and a steal. Cate Reese had a strong third quarter when McDonald had to sit out with three fouls. Reese finished the day one rebound short of a double-double with 13 points and 9 rebounds. Arizona rushed out to an 11-0 lead, shooting over 83 percent. Wyoming wasn’t able to break through and score until the 5:52 mark in the first quarter. By that time, Cowgirls’ starting forward Bailee Cotton already had two fouls. “Wyoming is a great team and they have great players,” McDonald said. “But we knew that one of their weaknesses was defense, guarding us one-on-one. And, so, we took advantage of that from the get-go.” On the other end of the court, Wyoming was stymied by Arizona’s defense, looking at a complete loss on the offensive end for the entire first half. After scoring just 10 points in the opening quarter, they put up only five in the second. By the time half-time rolled around, Arizona had built a 26-15 lead. The problem for the Wildcats was that the lead should have been bigger. After scoring 19 in the first quarter, Arizona struggled to put points on the board in the second. They, too, scored in single digits, adding just seven points in the second quarter. New challenges presented themselves after the half. When McDonald picked up her third foul early in the third quarter, someone else needed to step up. That someone was Reese, who had nine points and four rebounds in the third after scoring only four points in the first half. “Earlier in the year, we couldn’t play without Aari on the floor,” Barnes said. “So, now, different people are stepping up, and we’re playing so much better as a team. That’s what I’m proud about.” Wyoming picked up their own scoring coming out of the locker room, adding 14 points—only one fewer than they scored in the entire first half. Arizona was barely able to win the quarter 16-14. After the third quarter, the Cowgirls seemed to have lost what little fight they had. With 2:46 to go and a 63-37 lead, Barnes pulled her starters. “It’s a blessing to keep playing right now,” Tee Tee Starks said. “Everybody’s not playing right now, and we have the opportunity to. So, we don’t want to take this opportunity for granted. We want to come out and play our best basketball in these last few games that we’re able to play in this season.” The Wildcats will have their next opportunity when they host TCU in the WNIT semifinals on Wednesday, Apr. 3 at 6:30 p.m. MST. Postgame interviews Adia Barnes Here’s Adia Barnes after Arizona Women's Basketball’s win over Wyoming Posted by AZ Desert Swarm on Sunday, March 31, 2019 Aari McDonald and Tee Tee Starks<doc-sep>Adia Barnes challenged Arizona fans to crack the 7,000 attendance mark for Sunday’s Elite Eight game against Wyoming. They answered the call — and then some. The Wildcats drew 7,717 fans to McKale Center, their largest crowd since 2016. When that figure was announced over the loudspeaker during the third quarter, UA players smiled and freshman forward Cate Reese mouthed to her teammates “that’s a lot.” Arizona went on to beat the Cowgirls 67-45, using the crowd’s energy to race to an 11-0 start. The Wildcats will host TCU in the Final Four on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. MST, giving UA fans another chance to rally behind the women’s team as it continues its postseason run. More and more have been flocking to McKale Center since the start of the WNIT. Here are the figures from each game:<doc-sep>The Arizona women’s basketball team already had their plane tickets to Laramie, Wyoming booked Thursday when they received some good news in the final minute of their win vs. Idaho. Instead of playing Wyoming at Wyoming in the Elite Eight of the WNIT, Arizona received the right to host (Sunday, 2 p.m. MST). “I like that much better for a couple reasons,” said UA coach Adia Barnes. “It’s a hard trip. I don’t talk to the team about what’s ahead, but it was going to be leave (Friday), play on Saturday. That’s a quick turnaround and you have to go to Denver and bus. And that’s a really hard place to play.” The Wildcats don’t have to worry about that because the UA administration ponied up. The WNIT determines the host based on factors such as fan base, facility availability, tournament seed, and travel constraints. But the No. 1 determinant, according to a person within the program, is the host bid. “Our administration really supports this program and every way and (athletic director) Dave (Heeke) made an offer they couldn’t refuse,” Barnes said. “I like that. An offer you can’t say no to.” Barnes declined to give specifics about that offer because, well, she doesn’t know what it is. “If it’s something you can’t refuse, it’s a lot of money,” she said. “But that shows that they’re supporting and they believe in us in what we’re doing and they’re putting money into it. So they’re investing in us. And I think that’s a big thing. And now the city is, so it’s just great momentum, and I want us to feed off of that.” Barnes hoped to get 5,000 fans at Thursday’s WNIT game against Idaho, and she got 6,300. So now she is raising the bar to 7,000 for Sunday’s Elite Eight game against Wyoming, even auctioning off her husband, assistant coach Salvo Coppa, to reach that goal. Date night with Salvo if you buy 1000 tickets in the next 10 minutes and I will be the chapperone! — ADIA BARNES ⬇️ (@AdiaBarnes) March 30, 2019 “I’m gonna get greedy,” she quipped Thursday. “I think we can do it.” Why not? The Wildcats have drawn more and more fans to each WNIT game, even filling in the student section Thursday. Barnes sees the fan support as validation for her decision to return to her alma mater, though she admits she didn’t think the program would be garnering this much attention in just her third season at the helm. Remember, it was just last season when the Wildcats went 6-24. “I think that’s one of the special things about Tucson, everything is about U of A,” Barnes said. “For a woman’s basketball program, that’s important because it’s all about us. It’s not about the WNBA, it’s not about the NBA, it’s not about MLB, it’s about this school and what’s going on. And right now we’re the thing that’s going up. So I love that. I think that’s exciting and the rewarding part about that is we had 6,300 people, So that’s telling me people want to come out and support and they’re happy and they’re buying in.” It’s basketball worth investing in. The Wildcats have several milestones this season, the most notable of which is reaching the postseason for the first time since 2011. On top of that, this is the first time they have won more than two postseason games in a season since 1996. Barnes acknowledges the team’s run might have ended sooner if not for the raucous fan support. “The crowd, it ignited us,” Barnes said Thursday after the win vs. Idaho. “When we were flat and the basketball was getting a little bit ugly and we were letting them hit shots in the third quarter, the crowd got crazy, started chanting ‘Arizona’ and it makes us make plays. You feed off of it.”<doc-sep>
The Arizona Wildcats (22-13) are going to the WNIT Semifinals for the first time since 1996 as they stifled Wyoming (25-9) by a score of 67-45 in McKale Center on Sunday afternoon. With the win over Wyoming, Arizona has won 22 games for the first time since 2004 and drew the largest crowd since 2016 as 7,717 fans packed the stands at the McKale Center. Aari McDonald got back to her scoring ways as she scored a game-high 25 points to go along with six rebounds and four assists. Cate Reese was Arizona’s second double-figure scorer as she scored 13 points and grabbed nine boards. “Wyoming is a great team and they have great players,” McDonald said. “But we knew that one of their weaknesses was defense, guarding us one-on-one. And, so, we took advantage of that from the get-go.” Not a subscriber? Sign up now to get all the great information on the premium boards and all of the premium stories on WildcatAuthority.com! Click here to subscribe! Wyoming could never get anything going as the Wildcats forced the Cowgirls to shoot 31% from the field for a total of 45 points, their second lowest point total of the season. Coming into the game, Wyoming averaged 68 points on 46% shooting. On the other end of things, Arizona shot 47% from the field and owned the paint, out-rebounding Wyoming 36-29 while outscoring them 38-24 in the painted area. Arizona scored the first 11 points of the game and led 19-10 after the first quarter. Points were at a premium in the second quarter, but the Wildcats extended their lead to 26-15 heading into halftime. “Earlier in the year, we couldn’t play without Aari on the floor,” Arizona head coach Adia Barnes said. “So, now, different people are stepping up, and we’re playing so much better as a team. That’s what I’m proud about.” The third quarter was tightly contested, but Arizona was able to make push their lead to 42-29 heading into the fourth quarter. Arizona came out on fire in the fourth quarter, scoring a game-high 25 points on 70% shooting while holding Wyoming to 31% from the field in the fourth quarter. Next up for the Wildcats will be the WNIT Semifinals against TCU on Wednesday, April 3 at 6:30 p.m. MST in McKale Center. “It’s a blessing to keep playing right now,” Tee Tee Starks said. “Everybody’s not playing right now, and we have the opportunity to. So, we don’t want to take this opportunity for granted. We want to come out and play our best basketball in these last few games that we’re able to play in this season.” As Arizona moves forward, Barnes is happy about the current mindset of the Wildcats. “We look like we have a we’re-not-going-to-lose mentality,” Barnes said. “That’s the feeling I have from (the players).” *Arizona Athletics contributed to this report*