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The Daily Wildcat

The Daily Wildcat

 

Women’s basketball falls to Wake Forest on Field Trip Day

Ryan+Revock+%2F+The+Daily+Wildcat%0A%0ALocal+area+students+fill+the+McKale+Center+for+School+Day+at+the+UA+vs.+Wake+Forest+womens+basketball+game+on+Tuesday.++Wake+Forest+defated+the+Wildcats+70-58.
Ryan Revock
Ryan Revock / The Daily Wildcat Local area students fill the McKale Center for School Day at the UA vs. Wake Forest women’s basketball game on Tuesday. Wake Forest defated the Wildcats 70-58.

Poor offense once again doomed the Arizona women’s basketball team, as it was defeated 70-58 by Wake Forest on Tuesday in front of the largest home crowd of the season.

The Wildcats (1-5) struggled to put up points against the Demon Deacons (4-2) in front of 4,487.
Fans flocked to McKale Center yesterday for Field Trip Day and, according to a press release, an estimated 3,400 children from Tucson schools were in attendance. However, the kids likely left unsatisfied, as the Wildcats are off to their worst six-game start in the six years UA head coach Niya Butts has coached the team.

“We had a great crowd on hand,” Butts said. “We just didn’t have enough to get it done today.”
From the onset, the Wildcats struggled to consistently score points, as they started by converting 3-17 field goals in the first 12 minutes of the game. The UA went on to shoot a lackluster 21.4 percent from the field in the first half and 28.8 percent for the game.

The Wildcats didn’t score for the first four and a half minutes of the game, until freshman forward Breanna Workman converted a layup with 15:26 left in the first half.

Junior guard Candice Warthen came in leading the team in scoring at 17.4 points per game, but could not find her shooting stroke in this one. Warthen finished with nine points on 3-20 shooting from the field, including going 0-9 and scoring only one point in the first half.

“It’s never anything that the other team is doing,” Warthen said. “We’re making our own mistakes, digging our own holes.”

Key scorers senior Chelsea Douglas and junior Dearica Hamby led the charge for the Demon Deacons, as Douglas scored a game-high 22 points, including five three-pointers, and Hamby finished with a double-double of 18 points and 10 rebounds. Hamby controlled the paint both offensively and defensively as Wake Forest outscored Arizona 38-14 in points in the paint and outrebounded Arizona 41-39.

For Arizona, turnovers prevented the team from closing in on the lead. The Wildcats committed 16 turnovers on the night and Wake Forest capitalized by scoring 22 points off those turnovers.

One bright spot for the Wildcats was the performance of senior forward Erica Barnes, who played in her first home game of the season. Barnes played 29 minutes off the bench and contributed 15 points on 3-6 shooting from the field and 9-10 shooting from the free throw line.

“Hopefully I’ll get back in the starting lineup,” Barnes said. “If not, I can’t dwell on it, and I just have to continue to do my job.”

Arizona has a couple days of practice this week before hitting the road to play BYU in Provo, Utah, on Saturday at 2 p.m. MST. Butts said the team will be ready to play come Saturday.

“They’re [BYU] always a pretty good team, a well-coached bunch,” Butts said. “They’re going to be disciplined, so we have to play smart defensively and make plays offensively.”

— Follow Roberto Payne @RPsportreporter

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