After a season full of close games and near misses, Arizona almost had it in the final game of its season. 

Another rivalry game, another tight finish, and one final chance to extend their season. 

Instead, it ended the same way it has for the Wildcats all season — a few plays short. 

Arizona fell to Arizona State 54-51 in the opening round of the Big 12 women’s basketball tournament on the road at T Mobile Center in Kansas City.  

“When I look at the game and I look at the fact that we held them to 54 points, I think I would assume we win nine times out of 10,” Arizona Head Coach Becky Burke said in postgame remarks. “Life is hard. You get adversity, you battle, and sometimes things go your way, sometimes they don’t.”

Daniah Trammell opened the game for the Wildcats and almost finished it. 

Trammell scored the first points of the game, knocking down a jumper off an ASU turnover less than a minute into the first quarter and Arizona quickly built an early 8-2 lead. 

Noelani Cornfield added a second jumper off another Sun Devil turnover and Tanyuel Welch followed with a fast-break jumper in the paint, giving Arizona its largest lead of the first quarter at 10-2. 

For a minute it felt like Houston, where the ‘Cats kept clawing their way back, digging out of deficits.

But this wasn’t Houston; there was no victory celebration when the final whistle blew. 

As ASU slowly chipped away, the game settled into the back-and-forth baskets and scrappy gameplay both teams expected.

“They’re scrappy. They mixed up defenses. They play hard, and we play hard. So this type of game is a rock fight and it’s not always going to be pretty with these two teams,” said ASU Head Coach Molly Miller in a post game press conference. “But we battled, found a way, cleaned up a bloody nose or two and got after it.” 

The Wildcats continued to respond.

Molly Ladwig drilled a late first-quarter 3-pointer to give Arizona a brief lead, and Sumayah Sugapong added a pair of 3-pointers to bring the ‘Cats to 28 points. Still, Arizona trailed 29-28 at halftime. 

Every basket had an answer, and the second half followed that same script. 

Arizona reclaimed the lead midway through the third quarter and the teams continued to trade baskets throughout the fourth quarter and lost Nora Francois to her final foul, two of which were flagrant, early into the fourth quarter. 

Neither team led by more than four points in the final half, and the game featured seven lead changes and five ties. 

With 2:39 remaining, Blessing Adebanjo briefly put Arizona ahead with a layup, but minutes later the Sun Devils answered.

Again. 

The Wildcats’ final possession came down to the same player who opened the game. With eight seconds left, Trammell shot for a three that could have tied the game and forced overtime.

The shot missed.

Arizona’s season ended 3 points short. 

“This year’s just been a really, really big year of just really close games and lessons for us. It’s been hard, you know, it’s been really, really hard, but we’ve competed. We haven’t quit.”  said Burke.

Arizona’s defense kept the Wildcats within reach of the win, holding ASU about 10 points below its season scoring average of 67 points per game. 

But in basketball, size matters, and the Wildcats were no match for the Sun Devils’ physicality late in the game.

“We are a little bit undersized compared to them. So they really give us a hard time trying to get the basketball in and get to our spots, and they’re really, really physical with us in critical times,” Burke said. “We haven’t matched that physicality on the offensive end.” 

“We knew that they were going to come in fighting,” ASU guard Marley Washenitz said. “We knew this game had more on both ends… we knew it was going to be a scrappy game.”

Arizona State moves onto the second round against Iowa State on Thursday.

Miller said the tournament says a lot about the strength of the Big 12 conference.

“It’s not a bad thing when you have teams beating up on each other. It’s actually a really good thing. That means it’s extremely competitive. Every night is gonna be a fight,” Miller said. “If you’re .500 in the Big 12, that’s tournament worthy in my mind.” 

For the Wildcats, the loss closes out a season defined by competitiveness but not enough finishes.

“We’ll learn a lot from this year, but really excited for what’s to come for Arizona women’s basketball.” said Burke.

“The future is very, very bright.”

Arizona Sonoran News is a news service of the University of Arizona School of Journalism.