Arizona head coach Adia Barnes called the postseason a new season. She also had a new star. In her first Pac-12 Tournament game, Trinity Baptiste set the tone from the opening tip, leading the Wildcats to a 60-44 victory over Washington State to advance to the Pac-12 Tournament semifinals.
The Wildcats needed someone other than Aari McDonald to carry the offensive load. Barnes had repeatedly called for the rest of the team to step up. Baptiste took it to heart.
The grad transfer had 13 points in the first half. She ended the night with 17 points on 8-of-11 shooting. She grabbed six rebounds and six steals. The steals matched a season-high mark set by McDonald and Thomas several times this year.
McDonald pushed her streak of games in double digits to 86 by scoring 13 points. Instead of scoring, she showed her prowess at distributing, setting a new season-high with nine assists. She added five rebounds and three steals.
Cate Reese also scored in double figures with 10 points, while Sam Thomas added seven.
Arizona’s suffocating defense held WSU to 26 percent shooting and forced 26 turnovers, but did fall into some old habits, going through dry spells on the offensive end. It was not optimal when facing the team that came back from 16 down to beat them less than two months ago.
They entered the fourth quarter up by 16. This time, there would be no comeback.
The Wildcats held the Cougars to five points in the first quarter. Still, they only led by eight at the half after Krystal Leger-Walker hit a circus 3 at the buzzer.
That only seemed to stoke Arizona’s fire as they came out and locked the Cougars down in the third. Once again, the Wildcats held Washington State to just five points in a quarter. This time, they did not fall into their own offensive doldrums.
The Wildcats had their highest-scoring quarter of the night with 18 points in the fourth to punch their ticket to the semifinals. They will face either eleventh-seeded Washington or third-seeded UCLA on Friday to advance to the championship game.
This story will be updated.
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