TUCSON, Ariz. – The Arizona Wildcats (13-13, 4-11 Pac-12) are coming off a thrilling victory over the Arizona State Sun Devils (16-10, 7-8 Pac-12). Now, the two teams head to Tempe, Ariz. to square off once again on Sunday, Feb. 19 with tipoff set for 4 p.m. MST. The game will be televised on the Pac-12 Networks.
 
On the Sun Devils
Arizona State got off to a great start to the season as they went 9-2 in non-conference play, but have hit a bit of a skid in conference play as they are 7-8. Five of those losses have come against the cream of the crop though as they have lost to Stanford and Washington twice, Oregon State once and UCLA once. As a team. The Sun Devils really clamp down on the defensive end as they allow 56.7 points per game this season, which is second in the Pac-12. The three ball is not much of an option against ASU as teams have shot 27.9% from downtown against the Sun Devils this season, which tops the Pac-12. Sophie Brunner leads ASU with 13.3 points and 7.7 rebounds per game on 51% shooting. The Wildcats defeated Arizona State for the first time since 2014 on Friday night.
 
Last 5 vs. Arizona State
2/17/17: at Arizona 62, Arizona State 58
1/24/16: Arizona State 62, at Arizona 47
1/22/16: at Arizona State 61, Arizona 49
1/10/15: at Arizona State 71, Arizona 54
1/8/15: Arizona State 88, at Arizona 41
 
Adia Owns ASU
During head coach Adia Barnes' time as a player at Arizona (1995-98), she never lost to rival Arizona State in eight games and won by an average of 14.8 points in those eight games. Barnes scored 21.6 points per game against the Sun Devils and averaged 29 against them in her senior year. After defeating the Sun Devils as a head coach on Friday night, she is now 9-0 all-time against Arizona State.
 
Jones Joins the 1K Club
Senior LaBrittney will go down as one of the great Wildcats in school history. Jones scored her 1,000th career point in the fourth quarter on Friday, Jan 6 against Colorado on a fast break layup to make her Arizona's 19th 1,000-point scorer in school history. Since then, she has climbed up to 14th all-time with 1,182 career points. She moved into 14th against Washington on Feb. 10 as she passed Natalie Jones by scoring a game-high 22 points. She needs 18 more points to pass Lisa Griffith to be 13th all-time. The senior forward is averaging a career-high 14.8 points per game this season on 43% shooting. She has also made 12 threes this season after only making 14 in the previous three seasons and has made a career-high 84 free throws while attempting a career-high 120 free throw attempts.
 
Arizona Career Scoring Leaders
10. Kirsten Smith (1983-86), 1,264
11. Resha Bristol (1998-01), 1,260
12. Aimee Grzyb (2001-04), 1,227
13. Lisa Griffith (1997-00), 1,199
14. LaBrittney Jones (2013-pres.), 1,182
 
It's a Block Party and LB is Hosting
LaBrittney Jones has 150 career blocks through 110 games, which is good for an average of 1.4 swats per game and is now third on the Arizona all-time shot blocking list. After blocking four shots against Washington State on Feb. 12, she passed Elizabeth Pickney. Last year, she blocked 23 shots in 21 games and has a total of 51 this season, which is her career high for one season and is the seventh-most any Wildcat has blocked in a single season in school history. Throughout her career, she has posted 41 games where she has blocked multiple shots and as blocked 3+ shots in 20 games. Just this year, Jones has blocked at least three shots in seven games. Her career high was set back on Feb. 1, 2015 when she sent six shots into the seats.
 
Arizona Career Blocked Shots Leaders
1. Shawntinice Polk (2003-05), 222
2. Ify Ibekwe (2008-10), 166
3. LaBrittney Jones (2013-pres.), 150
 
Cleaning the Glass with LaBrittney
After recording 11 rebounds against Washington on Jan. 13, senior LaBrittney Jones moved into the top 10 in Arizona history in career rebounds. Jones is currently eighth all-time with 665 career boards grabbing eight against Arizona State. She needs 26 more to move into seventh place. She is also seventh in Arizona history as she averages 6.0 rebounds per game for her career.
 
Arizona Career Rebounding Leaders
4. Elizabeth Pickney (1999-02), 736
5. Dana Patterson (1985-88), 723
6. Davellyn Whyte (2009-13), 691
7. Amina Njonkou (2006-09), 690
8. LaBrittney Jones (2013-pres.), 665
 
Jones in the Pac-12
Through 26 games, Jones is ninth in the Pac-12 with 14.8 points per game and 11th with 7.0 rebounds per game. Additionally, 2.0 blocks per game for the senior is ranked third in the Pac-12. Jones' 5.3 defensive rebounds per game is eighth in the conference. In her last 10 games, Jones has shot 76% from the free throw line, which moved her up to 15th in the Pac-12 at a 70% clip. The senior has led the Wildcats in scoring 13 times this season and has led the team in rebounds 14 times. Jones is one of four Pac-12 players to be in the top 11 in scoring, rebounding and blocked shots per game.
 
Washington's World
Although she is a senior, Malena Washington is entering just her third season as a Wildcat as she started her career at Tyler Junior College, where she was named a JC All-American. Washington exploded for a career-high 26 points against New Mexico State. 22 of her points came after halftime and 14 of them came in overtime. The senior also grabbed a career-high eight rebounds and made a career-high 10 free throws. She made eight alone in overtime, which would've been set a new career-high even if she hadn't made one before overtime. Washington broke out of her slump against Washington State as she poured in 21 points against the Cougars. 13 of those points came in the third quarter alone and followed that up with eight against Arizona State in a victory. She is 15th in the Pac-12 in assists per game as she dishes out three per contest. The Beaumont native has scored in double-figures in all but five games this season and has led the Wildcats in scoring seven times overall this season. Additionally, Washington has made at least one three-pointer in all but five games this season and had made at least one in 13-straight games before failing to make one against Oregon State and Washington. The senior is 17th in the conference in scoring with a career-high 12.4 points per game and is fifth in free throw shooting (82.7%).
 
Give 'em that Work
After scoring a combined five points in a combined 30 minutes on the Washington trip, Workman got busy against Arizona State as she scored 15 points and had seven rebounds in 33 minutes. She has scored at least 14 points in three of her last five contests. Against Oregon, Workman recorded her second double-double of her career with 14 points and 10 rebounds. She followed that up with 17 points and eight rebounds. 17 points tied a career-high for the senior.
 
Buenos Dias, Lucia
Freshman guard Lucia Alonso has started in the first 25 games of her college career at the point guard position. So far, she averages 5.6 points, 2.8 assists, 2.0 rebounds, just under one steal and makes about one three-pointer per game. Alonso dished out a career-high nine assists against Washington on Jan. 13 and turned the ball over just two times. In Pac-12 play, Alonso has turned the ball over just 1.3 times per game. As a freshman point guard in the best conference in the country that has a plethora of elite point guards, 1.3 turnovers per game isn't so bad. In her last six games, Alonso has committed just four turnovers. Alonso is just one of four players to average 30 minutes per game in conference play and turn the ball over 1.3 times or fewer. The other three are Natalie Romeo, Kari Korver and Lexi Bando. The Spaniard leads the team in three-point shooting (40%) minutes played (31.2) and is second in made three-pointers (20).
 
We See Ya JaLea
Back on Nov. 26 junior wing JaLea Bennett had a career night against Southern Utah as she scored 21 points off the bench for a new career high. Her previous career high was 18 points. Against Southern Utah, she shot 7-11 from the field, made one three-pointer and was 6-6 from the charity stripe. Bennett seems to be getting back into a rhythm as she has averaged 21.7 minutes per game in her last nine games. In her previous five games, she averaged just 10.2 minutes per game. Against Arizona State, Bennett cracked the starting lineup for the third time this season and the first time since Dec. 17. She played 27 minutes and had eight points.
Go DJ, That's My DJ
Senior Dejza James had a career night on Feb. 3 against Oregon as she scored a career-high 18 points on 8-12 shooting in 25 minutes off the bench. James also added in eight boards, four on the offensive end. Against Washington, James was a menace on the defensive end as she had a team-high 10 rebounds, blocked a career-high three shots and had a career-high three steals. She followed that performance up with 11 boards against Washington State. That is the first time in her career that she has posted back-to-back double-digit rebounding efforts. She scored seven points and had five rebounds against Arizona State, all in the first half. Over her last seven games, James averages 7.4 points and 7.0 rebounds. 
 
TG For Three
Redshirt Sophomore Taryn Griffey has been through her fair share of adversity as she has undergone multiple knee surgeries, but she is back this year after having a solid start to her college career in the 2015-16 season. Last year, she shot 42.4% from downtown, which was the third-highest three-point percentage for one season in school history. So far this year, has knocked down 37% of her threes this year (17-46) and also has a career three-point field goal percentage of 40.5% (53-131). Griffey came off the bench and scored a season-high 19 points in a season-high 27 minutes against Florida Atlantic back on Dec. 1, which is a season-high for her. After sitting out against San Diego, Grambling State, Kansas and Utah State due to precautionary reasons, she came back against Portland State and scored six points off the bench in 15 minutes. She knocked down two three-pointers and blocked a career-high two shots. Griffey saw 18 minutes of action in each game against Colorado and Utah and scored seven points against Utah. Against Washington State, she scored nine points and played 21 minutes, which is the most she has played since Dec. 1. Griffey did not make the trip to the Bay Area and sat out against USC and UCLA, but did make the trip. She sat out against the Oregon schools as well and missed the Washington and Washington State games, although she did make the trip. Griffey returned to action against Arizona State and scored two points and dished out two assists in six minutes off the bench.
 
Top Five Individual Scoring Efforts
26, Malena Washington (at NMSU, 12/4/16)
24, LaBrittney Jones (at Utah, 1/8/17)
24, LaBrittney Jones (vs. California, 12/29/16)
23, LaBrittney Jones (vs. North Texas, 11/22/16)
22, Malena Washington (at Colorado, 1/6/17)
22, LaBrittney Jones (at Washington State, 2/12/17)
 
Like Clockwork
It's inevitable that Arizona will have at least one big quarter in a game, it just depends on when. Arizona's best quarter of all time though came last game against San Diego as the Wildcats scored 33 points in the third period, which is the most points scored in one quarter in Arizona history. They also hit 12 of their 16 shots, which is the most made shots in one quarter as well. Arizona made a strong late effort against Oregon on Friday night as they scored 27 points in the fourth quarter after scoring just 38 in the first three quarters combined. Eight-straight and 10 of the last 11 highest scoring quarters have come in the fourth period for the Wildcats. Arizona scored 18 in the fourth quarter against Arizona State to preserve the victory.
 
List of Arizona's highest scoring periods (game-by-game)
Alcorn State: 21 (3rd/4th qtrs.)
George Mason: 28 (4th qtr.)
North Texas: 19 (2nd/4th qtrs.)
Southern Utah: 23 (4th qtr.)
Florida Atlantic: 26 (3rd qtr.)
New Mexico State: 18 (OT)
San Diego: 33 (3rd qtr.)
Grambling State: 24 (3rd qtr.)
Kansas: 16 (4th qtr.)
Utah State: 21 (3rd qtr.)
Portland State: 29 (3rd qtr.)
California: 22 (3rd qtr.)
Stanford: 21 (1st qtr.)
Colorado: 18 (3rd qtr.)
Utah: 27 (3rd qtr.)
Washington: 21 (3rd+4th qtrs.)
Washington State: 19 (4th qtr.)
Stanford: 17 (2nd qtr.)
California: 22 (4th qtr.)
USC: 24 (4th qtr.)
UCLA: 14 (4th qtr.)
Oregon: 27 (4th qtr.)
Oregon State: 19 (4th qtr.)
Washington: 21 (4th qtr.)
Washington State: 22 (4th qtr.)
Arizona State: 18 (4th qtr.)
Average: 21.9 points
 
Winning the Turnover Battle
Arizona has won the turnover battle 11 of its last 18 games and has averaged just 15.5 turnovers in Pac-12 play. In its first 10 games of the season, Arizona averaged 19.9 turnovers per game and won the turnover battle just three times. Arizona has turned the ball over 12 times or fewer in three of their last four games.
 
One Last Go Around
Of the 12 players on the roster, five of them are seniors, which is the most in the Pac-12 as no other team has more than four seniors on their roster. Those five seniors include LaBrittney Jones, Malena Washington, Breanna Workman, Lauren Evans and Dejza James. They have combined to play in 445 games.
 
Barnes is Back
Adia Barnes is back in Wildcat Country, and this time it's as the head coach of the University of Arizona. Barnes is known as one of, if not the best women's basketball player to come through Tucson. As a player, she is the program's leading scorer as she finished with 2,237 career points (18.5 ppg). She is also second all-time in career rebounds (921). During Barnes' freshman year in the 1994-95 season, the Cats finished with a record of 11-19. The next three years were a complete turnaround as the Wildcats won at least 22 games in each season and made a three-straight postseason appearances. Over those three years, Arizona was 68-23, which is still the best three-year stretch in Arizona history.
 
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