TRUJILLO ALTO, Puerto Rico – Taryn Griffey tied a school record with seven 3-pointers and finished with a career-high 29 points to lift the Arizona Wildcats to a 79-60 win over Gardner-Webb in the final game of the Puerto Rico Classic.

Griffey finished 11 of 20 from the floor, 7 of 11 from 3-point range and added four rebounds in 26 minutes. The redshirt freshman guard helped the Wildcats (8-3) outscore the Bulldogs 30-18 in the fourth quarter by hitting four of her 3-pointers. She had 15 in the second half total.

“I was just really into helping my team out anyway I could tonight,” Griffey said after the win. “I wasn't really thinking about making or missing, I was just thinking, 'OK, we need to make our lead bigger. That's all that was on my mind.”

After leading by seven at halftime, maintained that lead into the fourth quarter with each team scoring 18 apiece in the third. But in the fourth, Griffey and the Wildcats pulled away. Leading 57-49 with 5:31 remaining, Griffey hit her first 3-pointer of the fourth to give the Wildcats their double digit lead of the game at 60-49.

Later in the quarter, leading by 10, Griffey hit another from long distance to make it 66-53 with less than four minutes to play. She followed that up with another bucket to make it 69-53. Her final long ball came 1:10 left to make it 77-58.

Griffey's performance came in the final game of three contests in three days. The guard missed all of last season with a torn ACL. Her seven 3-pointers put her in a seven-way tie for most 3-pointers in a game in school history. Kama Griffitts did it most recently, when she had seven against UNLV in 2012. Erin Butler, Dee-Dee Wheeler and Lisa Griffith (three times) all also hit seven in a game.

“She was really hot; shot the ball incredibly well from the field,” coach Niya Butts said. “When you can shoot the ball, you can shoot it. And when you're feeling it, you're feeling it. Tonight, for her, was one of those days.”

Griffey wasn't the only Wildcat to have a strong performance in the finale in Puerto Rico. Junior forward LaBrittney Jones, playing in her third game of the season after sustaining a foot injury, finished with 14 points and three steals in 25 minutes. Fellow junior Malena Washington had nine points and five assists off the bench for the Wildcats.

Arizona also got good minutes from freshman guard Michal Miller, who had seven points, three rebounds and two assists in 12 minutes, while also contributing defensively.

“Awesome minutes from Michal,” Butts said. “She came in and gave us instant offense. With LaBrittney, once she settled down and started some making some plays, it was big. We really needed that from her.”

After falling behind early, the Wildcats took a 31-24 lead at halftime. Griffey, who had 16 points in the opening game of the Puerto Rico Classic, had 14 in the first in just 13 minutes. She was 2 of 5 from 3-point distance. Malena Washington chipped in five points and three assists in nine minutes.

Trailing 11-5 early in the first quarter, Griffey hit a jumper to cut it to four. LaBrittney Jones followed with a pair of free throws before Malena Washington cashed in a layup to tie the game at 11. Trailing 14-13 with less than a minute remaining in the quarter, Washington hit a 3-pointer as time expired in the first to give Arizona its first lead of the game.

After extending the lead to 18-14, Gardner-Webb (6-5) scored the next five points to take a 19-18 lead with 7:39 to go in the half. Freshman Michal Miller then scored the next four points to give the Cats a 22-19 lead. Arizona didn't trail the rest of the half.

Griffey scored back-to-back buckets to extend the lead to seven. After Gardner-Webb cut it to five, Griffey scored the final five points of the half and extended the lead to 31-21. The Bulldogs hit a 3-pointer right before the half ended to cut it to seven for the halftime score.

The active finish to the half set up a strong performance from the Wildcats in the second to give them their first win in the Puerto Rico Classic. The team will now break for the holidays, before returning to host George Mason on Dec. 29.

“It's nice to get this one going into the break,” Butts said. “It's a much needed win for our team. Two tough games that we lost here. We thought we had an opportunity to win, but let it slip away from us. But we made up for it today.”