Wbit: Arizona falls apart in the last seconds, the 2nd game of the year falls off on Nau

The game had a different feeling this time. Arizona was consistently there, but fell back into a state in the middle. The wildcats lost in the first round of the WBIT against NAU 71-69. It was her second defeat against the lumberjacks this season.

“They play hard,” said Arizona Guard Skylar Jones. “I have to give it to you. Your big is good. Your guards know how to get open areas. Yes, all of this. And I would say not all of us have come out the same intensity.”

The wildcats were two with less than seven seconds before the game. Nau had to give three fouls. The lumberjack gave one. Arizona again. The ball finally ended up in the hands of the leading goal scorer Jones, but he was still there when the buzzer started.

It was an unfortunate end of the game. Barnes said that the ball should either go on the edge or a guard. She wanted Jones, who landed, but not the fault.

“It would be a short shot for a double graduation,” said Barnes. “We knew that Isis would be open to a right-hander, and if not, the guard at the top would be open. It is difficult to recognize at the moment, but Sky was open and she is a really good 3-point shooter, but I think she had the feeling that there was no longer time in the top. My philosophy as a coach is the coach. Hard shot.

Arizona would not have been able to bind or win Jones in the end anyway. She had 21 points in 9-of-17 shooting. She hardly missed a double double with nine rebound. She also had a block.

“At the other press conference I told you that I have pain,” said Jones. “I didn’t really want to play, but I still thought when I was going to play, I’m going hard, at least I try. And I have the feeling that I did.

Nau defeated Arizona in Flagstaff 30 points from the 3-point line for 10-against-32 shooting and 22 from the free-wing line. Receive Breya Cunningham To merge in 14 minutes was part of her 29 trips to the charity strip.

The wildcats avoided these problems this time. The lumberjacks have jacked up many 3 Series, they just didn’t do them. Nau went from afar 5 for 24th Cunningham played 35 minutes and had a double double. Their statistics were spectacular with 19 points, 11 rebounds, 2 assists, 5 blocks and 1 steal. It was bunched for only three fouls.

It was the type of stat line that Arizona would have won many more games this season and did not go in the WBIT at first, but it was too late. In addition, Arizona still couldn’t do this time.

Beh led the team with six templates. She also had six points, five rebounds, a block and four steals.

In addition to Jones and Cunningham, newcomer Lauryn Swann rated in double -digit numbers. The guard had 13 points. She was only 3 for 11 from the field, but she went 4 from the line for 4. She added five rebounds, two assists and two steals.

Arizona went into play without Jada WilliamsPresent Montaya DewAnd Joryynn Ross. DEW was operated on last week, but both Williams and Ross have played off due to injuries with whom they have to deal with the whole season. However, the wildcats were not as short as they could have been.

Sahneya Jah checked in 2:07 in the first quarter. It was her first time since January 25th. Although she was with the team in Kansas City, it was not warmed up against Colorado before her quarter -final loss. She only played seven minutes.

Barnes said it was difficult not to have any other true point, but it wasn’t the reason why they had lost.

“I think you can control your efforts despite all these things,” she said. “You can have the box out of control. You can control the transition defense because this is an effort. So these are efforts. These are controllable.

The wildcats were strong in the first and third quarter of the year and fought mainly in second and fourth place. That was partly true on Thursday.

The second quarter did not start well for Arizona. Wildcats 1 were out of the field for 9 at the time limit of the media and had only scored four points. They had three sales.

Arizona scored 60 percent in the first quarter, received a fall to 23.5 percent in second place. Her problems continued when they came out of the changing room.

The wildcats went off the ground for 16 in the third quarter, but they had difficulty stopping Nau. The Lumberjacks made a 9-0 run over 90 seconds earlier during this period. A seven-point lead in Arizona became a two-point Nau advantage. It felt very much as if it were the game of the lumberjacks at that time.

There were more of it in the fourth. The teams both shot badly, but Nau was just a little better. The lumberjacks met 28.6 percent of their shots, while Arizona connected 26.3 percent.

The end of the game felt like the end of this team. While it spoke a lot about what “we” would have to do better next year, there was also an impact that the team would be different.

Barnes spoke about what she will do with future teams. Most of the time, it was important to follow the best transfers she can get and not to play younger players unless they are better than what they can get from the portal.

“We needed more experience and we needed some players to prepare for playing professionals, and this love basketball this year, and that would help us,” said Barnes. “This is a mentality, and it is difficult, because for me from the first 13 years and coaching of the Kelsey plums and many different all-Americans, it is as if you really want it, and you breathe in every day. And I think most of the children, they say, they love basketball because they listen well. So I had reality.

After making decisions to keep their young core by not bringing players who take the time for the time and arrange for them to transfer, she said that she would not do so in the future. In many ways, it would be a return to what Barnes did when she became head coach for the first time. The program was not only more successful than it was strongly based on transfers, but does not believe that it pays off to protect the season for young players, especially under the new model, which focuses on money and movement.

“You change anyway,” she said.

Beh closed her college career in front of 2,706 fans, each paid $ 26 to $ 46 to see them. That was about 500 less than the first game of the 2019. She said she didn’t know what she will do next, except that she will go to bed and not set an alarm, but there are things that she will miss.

“I will remember the fans the most,” said Beh. “They show a lot of love. A few of my teammates, I will miss it … I won’t sit up here and lie … I will miss the coaches.”

Barnes hopes that the other players have taken away something.

“I think this is a life hour for you, because there will be things in life that you have to do, what you don’t want to do,” she said. “You may not want to go to work, you may be in a professional team … but you don’t play. There are different things that happen, but you still compete and you give everything, your mentality. I think it’s not easy because everyone wants to go the NCAA tournament. A team, but we are not up to date.

Nau will travel to Nashville, Tennsal, to play Belmont in the second round. The Bruins defeated the state of Middle Tennessee on Thursday.