Quick Hitters
McDonald scores 24, No. 18 Arizona women beat Arizona State
TUCSON — Aari McDonald had nine of her 24 points in the fourth quarter and finished with 11 rebounds to help No. 18 Arizona beat No. 16 Arizona State 59-53 on Friday night.
Dominique McBryde’s 3-pointer with 3:05 to go sparked a 7-0 run for the Wildcats (16-3, 5-3 Pac-12) that ended at 52-42 with 1:36 to go.
Robbi Ryan led the Sun Devils with 25 points with four 3-pointers. She hit a pair of 3s in the final 1:15 that helped the Sun Devils (15-5, 5-3) cut the deficit to four.
Arizona took the lead for good during an 11-2 run in the third quarter capped at 33-29 on McDonald’s jumper with 2:36 left in the period.
Sam Thomas added 13 points and Amari Carter scored 11 for the Wildcats.
Eboni Walker added nine points and 10 rebounds.
The Yuma Catholic girls basketball team is halfway to a second straight perfect 3A Metro West region record.
When their shots weren’t falling Friday night, the Shamrocks leaned on their defense. When their shots started falling, they pulled away from Valley Christian for a 43-34 victory.
It was the sixth regular-season win in a row for the Shamrocks (10-2 AIA, 5-0 region), who were able to overcome a slow start against the Trojans (7-5, 4-2).
“Any win’s a good win,” coach Bob McGalliard said. “We kind of gutted one out tonight.”
YC led only once in the first half — for less than 10 seconds in the final minute — and didn’t go back in front until junior Kylie McCloud and senior Taylor Walton splashed backto-back, much-needed 3-pointers late in the third quarter.
They were much needed because up to that point, the Shamrocks had made just 9 of 34 shots (2 of 12 from deep). In the first nearly-22 minutes, YC scored just 20 points. Over the
YC: 10-2 AIA, 5-0 region VC: 7-5 AIA, 4-2 region
final 10-plus, they scored 23.
Meanwhile, Valley Christian’s offense — though never particularly efficient at any point — went the opposite direction. The Trojans, who shot just 27.3% for the game, went just 1 of 8 from the field during a five-point fourth quarter.
The Shamrocks entered the fourth quarter up 30-29 and led 34-33 a few minutes into it before using a 9-0 run to put the game away.
“We couldn’t make some shots (early), and defensively I thought we were a little slow in the first half; we got in foul trouble,” McGalliard said. “But we came through in the second half and our defense carried us.”
Senior point guard Veronica Saco led YC with 16 points, four