With his last two fights being decided by a total of three points, a close game between No. 6 Arizona Wildcats and No. 1 at Stanford Cardinal was a reasonable expectation. The cardinal had different ideas, crossing for an 81-54 victory at the McKale Center.
It is the first loss of the season for the Wildcats, who dropped to 7-1 overall and 5-1 in Pac-12.
Things started out well for them. Almost halfway through the first quarter, they rose by six. Aari McDonald reached a point of 3 and Sam Thomas hit two of them.
Then Stanford woke up. Team No. 1 in the country did what Team No. 1 was supposed to do. They closed the room with a 13-2 straight, taking a 20-13 lead.
“In the first five minutes, we were playing our game,” Bendu Yeaney said. “And after that, we started playing their game.”
The cardinal did not give up. The percentage of shots increased steadily as they hit one after another. They achieved 48.3% of their field goals, including 66.7% of their 3 points.
On the rare occasions that they lost, an old problem for Arizona appeared. The Wildcats failed to hit the ball. The Cardinal beat the home team 51-32.
Across the court, Arizona’s offense was useless. After starting the game by shooting well over 40 percent in the first 4.5 minutes, the Wildcats ended the time with a shot percentage of 18.8. They opened the game 3-3 at a distance. They ended the semester 3-12.
“We know we had to earn points on the board against Stanford,” said Yeaney. “You really can’t have goalless quarters or goalless droughts against them. When they run, they increase by around 15. And that’s what happened to us. We couldn’t score, so we weren’t really stopping in defense. And that is not something we can do. We cannot do this going forward. “
Shooting problems would last the entire game. Although she extended her double-digit punctuation string, McDonald fired just 3-18 off the ground. Only Thomas (45 percent) and Yeaney (50 percent) shot the Wildcats better than 20 percent.
“They made us sick”, Arizona coach Adia Barnes said.
The Wildcats left the locker room after the break looking more like the team that started the game. They overcame Cardinal 21-17 in the third quarter. This still left them in a 20-point hole too deep to escape.
Arizona returns to action on Sunday against Cal.