The Arizona Wildcats will open a three-game home stand Wednesday night when the New Mexico State Aggies visit for a 7 p.m., matchup.
The Aggies come to town sporting a 6-0 record and coming off an 87-53 win over Northern Arizona on Saturday. The Wildcats are 2-0 at home this season, notching convincing wins over Howard and Kansas.
“I certainly hope that we are going to be ready to play,” coach Niya Butts said. “Our last outing at home was a good one for us in front of a large crowd. Our fans were ready to see us play. So it’s always good to be back at McKale. Three in row at home, but we certainly want to focus on New Mexico State right now and they are a very good basketball team. We have to be ready to play. We’re locked in right now mentally; we know what they are going to do, we just have to have better focus on the floor.”
The Wednesday night affair should see plenty of shooting from long range. New Mexico State has hit 47 3-pointers in six games and has taken 156. The Wildcats lead the country in 3-point shooting percentage at .517 and are 31 of 60 on the season.
“They are a team that is putting up a lot of threes,” Butts said. “They have a couple of players coming off hot games, too. They are going to expect that ball to go in. We have to be able to disrupt them. We are looking forward to the competition and getting back on the floor and taking care of business.”
The Wildcats will sign autographs on the upper concourse after the game with the Aggies.
Dominant Defense
The Wildcats enter Wednesday’s matchup with New Mexico State coming off a dominant defensive performance in the second half against North Texas. The Wildcats allowed just four points in the third quarter and held the Mean Green without a field goal for more than five minutes. UNT shot 36.4 percent from the floor and 25 percent from 3-point distance. The second half performance, which lifted the Wildcats to a victory was a continuation of Arizona’s strong defense all season. Through five games, the Wildcats are fifth in the country in scoring defense, allowing just 48.4 points per game. To this point, only 10 programs in the country are allowing less than 50 points per game. Teams are shooting just .333 from the field against the Wildcats and .243 from 3-point distance.
Team Scoring Defense Leaders
Mississippi State; 37.2
Buffalo; 46.3
Connecticut; 47.5
Texas; 47.6
Arizona; 48.4
Shoot That 3, Hit That 3
Through five games this season, Arizona has proven it has plenty of shooters who can hit from deep. The Wildcats are 31-60 from 3-point range this season (a .517 shooting percentage), which leads the country. Taryn Griffey is 11 for 21 on the season (.524) and Malena Washington and Michal Miller have each added six long balls in five games. Washington is six for 15. Miller is six of 10. JaLea Bennett showed off her ability from long range against North Texas, hitting all three of her attempts from behind the line. Bennett is six of eight from three so far this season. Dejza James and Keyahndra Cannon have all also connected from three-point range this young season. Arizona’s strong showing from deep comes one season after shooting .241 from three last season.
Top 3-point shooting teams
Arizona; .517 (31-60)
Oregon State; .460 (40-87)
Notre Dame; .452 (33-73)
Oakland; .431 (53-123)
Rutgers; .429 (33-77)
Canisius; .427 (41-96)
Oregon; .425 (51-120)
Kentucky; .415 (44-106)
South Dakota; .412 (56-136)
Boston College; .404 (46-114)
Putting in That Work
Junior forward Breanna Workman poured in 15 points against North Texas, just two off her career high of 17 set last season against Stanford. Workman was four of 10 from the field and seven of 10 from the free throw line. Workman has scored in double figures in three of five contests this season, scoring 10 points each Toledo and San Diego. Workman, a veteran presence on the team who brings leadership, has been at her best with the Wildcats on the road. In three road games, she’s averaging 11.7 points per game and has played at least 28 minutes in each road contest. On the season, Workman is averaging 7.4 points per game. Although she hasn’t scored at much at home (two points), she’s averaging 5.5 rebounds a contest in the two games and has been a force on the glass.
Recapping November
The Wildcats are officially through the first calendar month of the season with a 4-1 record. Last year, the Cats went 2-3 in the first month of the season. This November, Arizona scored road wins over Toledo and North Texas and home wins over Howard and Kansas. A five-point setback in a competitive affair at San Diego stands as Arizona’s lone loss this season. Team leaders through one month are: Points Per Game; Malena Washington (10.9); Rebounds Per Game; Breanna Workman (5.8); Steals; Lauren Evans (9); Blocks; A’Shanti Coleman (6); 3-Point Shooting; Taryn Griffey (11-21).
Scouting New Mexico State
The Aggies enter Wednesday’s matchup with a 6-0 record, piling up wins over North Dakota State, New Mexico, Sacramento State, Southern Utah, Northwestern State and Northern Arizona. Brianna Freeman, a junior forward from Killeen, Texas, leads the team in scoring at 13.8 points per game. She’s shooting .585 from the floor and is pulling down 8.8 rebounds a contest, while blocking two shots a game. Sasha Weber, a senior guard from Lacey, Wash., is second on the team at 13.2 points per game and leads the team with 18 made 3-pointers. She’s 18-43 from deep this season and is second on the team with 17 assists. Brooke Salas, a freshman, is also averaging double figures, pouring in 11.2 points per game. She’s also averaging 5.3 rebounds per game in 24.3 minutes a contest. Tamera William is only other Aggie averaging more than 10 points per game at 10.8. As a team, the Aggies are outscoring opponents by 15.2 points per game and outrebounding opponents by 1.7 a contest.
Inside The Series
A look at the three all-time games in the New Mexico State-Arizona series:
2/3/73: Arizona 48, NMSU 41
2/16/73: Arizona 44, NMSU 29
2/9/74: Arizona 50, NMSU 34
2/23/74: Arizona 57, NMSU 35
3/1/75: Arizona 63, NMSU 48
2/22/76: Arizona 72, NMSU 67
12/11/76: NMSU 92, Arizona 62
2/12/77: NMSU 91, Arizona 58
3/4/78: NMSU 76, Arizona 71
1/18/79: Arizona 80, NMSU 65
12/8/79: NMSU 88, Arizona 81
12/3/82: NMSU 67, Arizona 63
11/26/83: NMSU 54, Arizona 53
11/29/84: Arizona 66, NMSU 61
2/20/86: NMSU 69, Arizona 52
12/7/86: NMSU 76, Arizona 58
12/10/87: NMSU 80, Arizona 66
12/29/88: Arizona 64, NMSU 61
11/25/89: Arizona 83, NMSU 55
12/6/89: NMSU 68, Arizona 62
12/2/90: Arizona 94, NMSU 82
12/9/90: NMSU 82, Arizona 73
12/30/91: Arizona 100, NMSU 97
12/19/10: Arizona 71, NMSU 59
11/21/11: Arizona 84, NMSU 67
Answering the Bell
Junior Farrin Bell played a career-high 18 minutes last game against North Texas. She didn’t score, but had three rebounds, two assists and a steal. The 18 minutes surpassed her previous career high of 17, which was set one game earlier against Kansas. Against the Jayhawks, she finished with three points, four assists and three rebounds. Coach Niya Butts has bene pleased with Bell and thought the SMU transfer’s production went far past the box score and praised the redshirt junior after the win over the Jayhawks: “To me, Farrin Bell was our player of the game. She didn’t score the most points but she stepped in at every position on the floor and made plays for us. So you have to be proud of that and we have to continue to celebrate each other’s success as a team. If we can do that the sky’s the limit.”
Bell is a redshirt junior and is scheduled to graduate this spring.
Packed the House
The Wildcats drew 6,652 fans to their Monday matinee matchup with Kansas, setting a new program record for single-game attendance. Monday was School Day, where Arizona welcomed in several thousand students from local elementary schools to enjoy the game with the Jayhawks. The students helped provide an electric atmosphere that helped the Wildcats win 67-52. Kansas coach Brandon Schneider said after the game that the fans certainly had an impact: “I felt like the environment really bothered us early. We knew it was going to be loud. We knew they would have 6,000 plus with the promotion going on today. We practiced with music and crowd noise the last couple of days.” The total surpassed last year’s School Day of 6,268, which stood as the program record.
It’s A Bench Party
The Wildcats have gotten some significant contributions from its bench early this season. Through five games, Arizona is outscoring its opponent’s bench 129-55 for a +74 scoring margin. The bench has scored at least 16 points in each game this season and has posted a +13 scoring margin in each of the last four games. Malena Washington is leading the bench crew, averaging 10.4 points per game. The junior guard is also tied for the team lead in assists with 12. Dejza James has also been solid off the bench, averaging 4.7 points per game and 5.3 assists a contest. Michal Miller, Lauren Evans, Farrin Bell and Destiny Graham have also been productive coming off the bench for the Wildcats. Evans is the team leader in steals.
Home Sweet Home
Eight of Arizona’s 10 wins last season came at the friendly confines of McKale Center and the solid play at home has rolled over to this season. The Wildcats are 2-0 at home to start the season. Arizona beat Howard 65-28 and then topped Kansas 67-52 on School Day. Arizona has won three straight at McKale Center dating back to last season. Last season, Arizona picked up home wins against UC-Santa Barbara, Grambling State, Southern, UAB, UT-Martin, Oregon, Stanford and Utah. All total, Arizona is 11-7 in its last 18 games at McKale Center.
