Cats Cruise to 76-55 Exhibition Win

TUCSON, Ariz.--- Four Wildcats scored in double figures, as Arizona led wire-to-wire en route to a convincing 76-55 exhibition victory over Concordia, Tuesday afternoon inside the McKale Center.

Sophomore forward LaBrittney Jones scored a team-high 14 points on 4-of-9 shooting from the field, while also grabbing five rebounds and connecting on 6-of-8 free throws.

Freshman guard Charise Holloway also impressed in her unofficial Arizona debut, recording 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting, including knocking down 3-of-6 shots from three-point land and grabbing six rebounds off the bench.

Sophomore forward Dejza James provided a spark off the bench, nearly notching a double-double, as she put in 11 points, grabbed eight rebounds and recorded a game-high three blocks in her first game back from an ACL injury that kept her out for most of last season.

Senior Candice Warthen had a nice day offensively, scoring 12 points, as she connected on a game-high eight shots at the free throw line, while also dishing out a game-high equaling three assists.

Sophomore forward Breanna Workman chipped in as well, scoring eight points and grabbing a game-high tying 10 rebounds in the win.

Janis Peterson led the way for Concordia, as she scored a game-high 17 points, but shot just 7-of-21 from the field. Katie Ogdon was the only other Eagle to score in double figures, as she contributed 12 points and five rebounds in the loss.

This one was never in doubt, as Arizona raced out to an early 11-0 advantage, holding Concordia without a bucket for the first five minutes of the contest. The Cats would go on to hold the Eagles to just 32 percent shooting (10-of-31) for the game and 28 percent (7-of-25) from the field for first half.

Concordia was able to trim the Arizona lead down to 30-22 with 2:47 remaining in the half, but never got any closer than that, as the Cats strung together a mini 7-2 run to take a 37-24 lead into halftime.

Arizona outscored Concordia 13-3 over a five-minute span, capped off by a Jones layup, to take its largest lead of the game at 56-34 with 10:55 remaining in the contest. The Wildcats shot just over 44 percent from the field (15-of-34) in the second half, while they converted on nearly 78 percent of their free throws for the game (21-of-27).

Arizona won the battle in the paint, outscoring Concordia 32-20, including recording 21 second chance points to the Eagles’ seven. The Cats also received a huge contribution from the bench, outscoring the Concordia reserves 38-13 on the day.

The Cats will open the 2014-15 regular season next Monday against Cal State Bakersfield at 7 p.m. MST inside the McKale Center. 

ARIZONA POSTGAME QUOTES

Head Coach- Niya Butts

Opening Statement
"First of all thank you guys for being here. I know today is a holiday and people are taking some time off, but we tipped it off today so I do appreciate that. Obviously it's our first action in McKale Center and that was good for us to actually get on the floor and be healthy enough to have a full roster. We wanted to play a little bit better and did not accomplish some things defensively that we are capable of accomplishing. Offensively, I think we turned the ball over too much and they were able to score 14 points off of our turnovers. We were not really patient offensively and disciplined with the basketball like we needed to be and I thought we could have played more aggressive defensively."

On the defense
"I hope to see more. We had opportunities to come up with some loose balls defensively that we just did not come up with. We have to get on the floor and get those balls. Our lack of ball pressure was aggravating me. Our position and help side defense was not really good and I thought in so many cases we let them off the hook."

On the mistakes made
" We take everything into account. As coaches we want everything perfect and for us we have to get as close to that as we can. Today I thought we were miles and miles away from that and we do not want that to be the case. We want to step on the floor every night, execute our game plan, and play with energy. I do not think we did that for long periods of time in this basketball game."

On the bench production
"Obviously we did some things well. Our bench was productive. I think we had 38 points off of the bench, but we could have had more than that to be quite honest. With Alli (Gloyd) getting in foul trouble, that just means we have to be smarter. We have to take care of ourselves defensively and play position defense. I think some of that is just being out of position and not making the right plays with the basketball. We had some people step up off the bench and do some good things, so there was some positives to this game. Probably the most important thing to take away from this game is actually getting game action in McKale, in front of a crowd, and the opportunity to get those first game jitters out of the way."

Sophomore forward- Dejza James

On her first game back from injury
“Today my first thought was just to play hard and whatever happens, happens. Just play."

On her performance Tuesday
"I have just been focused on playing the game. Practice has been a growing process for me and I've really been trying to grow. Today, I was totally able to put it all together and really feel like my hard work has paid off. I have to keep it up for sure."

On how the team has adjusted so far with so many new faces
"You know when we heard we had seven new girls coming in we couldn’t believe it at first. That's a lot of people coming in, but we all get along so well and spending time off the court definitely contributes to our success on the court and in the game. At practice, when we're out there playing with each other too, we have a different understanding of everybody and a different feel, which helps you understand your teammates a lot better."

Senior guard- Candice Warthen

On getting to the foul line
"Well I have to keep getting to the foul line. It is something my coaches have been asking me to do and something I know I have to start doing more of."

On the encouragement of the win
"Well we need people to step up when the time comes, and today everyone did."

On the hardest part about the first game of a season
"Having a lot of freshmen on the team sometimes you might be worried about how they might do, how they might adjust and so on. But it's not only the freshmen, it's everybody coming back this year, and a lot of people didn't play last year. So just coming back after a bad season last year is always in the back of your head.”

Sophomore forward- LaBrittney Jones
On the team’s overall rhythm this game
"I feel like we struggled a bit offensively, but I feel like our team chemistry is getting a lot better. Practice has helped with that."

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