UA basketball notebook: Fundamental focus, Helena Pueyo steals leader, Isis Beh stepping up

Now, it’s time to go to the Bahamas!

While that may sound like a fun, relaxing time, for the Wildcats it’s mainly about basketball — just in a beautiful location.

The UA women’s basketball team will play three games in three days at the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament, starting with Memphis (1-2) Saturday afternoon at 12:30 p.m. The other Wildcat opponents will be determined by who wins, who loses. Arizona (4-0) will have a shot at playing Michigan, Ole Miss, Howard, DePaul, South Dakota and Middle Tennessee State.

But before we get ahead of ourselves, a lot happened in those three wins against NAU, LMU and San Diego.

Starting with the starters.

Arizona coach Adia Barnes went big, went small and then went big again with her opening five each time out in an effort to find the right mix and ensure intensity from the tip.

In the first two games, the Wildcats started off sluggish before pulling away. Or, as Barnes said, it was like the Wildcats were a punching bag taking punches and she wants to be the ones giving out the punches.

In the end it was the big lineup with Helena Pueyo, Esmery Martinez, Maya Nnaji, Breya Cunningham and Kailyn Gilbert that worked much better in the win Tuesday night in the 79-66 win over San Diego. This group got them started on such good footing that the Wildcats were only playing from behind for 31 seconds throughout the entire game.

“I challenged (them) — I changed the lineup,” Barnes said. “Then people get a little bit mad. Then you move it around. But then today that same group that I gave a chance two games ago came and we had one of our best starts. So that’s expectation and the standard here. We can’t give up 15 points in the first five minutes.”

Despite being the third game in five days and some admitting to being a little tired, the Wildcats played hard against San Diego. They battled with swarming defense that kicked it up at times with a full court press, even as the game wore on.

The Wildcats continued to have that mentality of not letting up until the buzzer sounds. This was highlighted by Martinez’ steal and finishing a fast break with a tad over a minute left in the game. It was Martinez’ fourth steal and number 19 for the Wildcats.

Just as Barnes was tinkering with the starting lineup, these early games gave her a chance to see in real time what the Wildcats need to work on.

Some of that comes down to fundamentals, like boxing out, jump stopping and not passing while jumping in the air — which Barnes said ends up a turnover 90% of the time.

Speaking of turnovers, the Wildcats are doing that quite a bit. They averaged 15 turnovers per game over these three home games and had 19 against San Diego. Barnes chalks this up to being such a young team.

“I think we get so excited. We have a great defensive play, we turn them over. Then, we throw it back because we want to go for that home run pass,” Barnes said. “But I think with experience you don’t go for that pass. You don’t go for like the score right away.

“Just learning, but that comes with time.”

You get a foul, you get a foul

Over the last two games, 90 total fouls were called; Arizona had 49 of them. That’s a lot, and it disrupted the flow of the games.

Against San Diego, Arizona was the beneficiary of many of those trips to the line, making 27 of 33 attempts.

While not commenting on specific calls, Barnes used it as a teaching moment on when to be aggressive and when to step back, about communicating with your teammates and being disciplined.

“You’re really aggressive in the press, but if the team is one (foul) away from the bonus you have to recognize (it) … and that’s not the time to go for a steal out of position,” Barnes said. “You don’t need to do that. You need to pop back and contain. If we’re in foul trouble and they’re in the bonus, and they’re just driving downhill because we always have one or two players were full close out on, you’re running off the three-point line, everybody else you’re containing. You can’t get beat so easily. But you don’t need to go for steals, you need to just be solid and contain.

“We’re going to work a little bit more on adjusting to a containment defense, when we’re in these situations because we’re fouling way too much. We don’t box out and then we are trying to block everything around the rim. It doesn’t work against the Memphises , the Ole Misses, the Michigans. We have to get more disciplined.”

A leader leading

While this year’s squad appears to be a true team — meaning everyone moving in the same direction — one of the Wildcats who stands out early on both on and off the court as a leader is redshirt junior Isis Beh.

Beh has taken the two younger posts — freshman Cunningham and sophomore Nnaji — under her wing. She makes smart decisions on the court, like when to be aggressive or stand her ground and when to make that on-target pass. Against LMU she posted a quiet two blocks and two steals, as well as four rebounds. She followed that up with seven points and an offensive rebound against San Diego.

Barnes said, “She’s always doing the right thing. She’s pursuing the ball so she’s really valuable.”

Beh is also what Barnes calls “good for the culture.” She is always cheering on her teammates when she’s on the bench, one of the first to lend a hand to help a fellow Wildcat up on the court. When Arizona bangs the drum after they win a home game, it’s Beh and Martinez — the former West Virginia teammates — who are jumping around and having the most fun.

Key notes

Cunningham, who Barnes said has “gloves for hands” and could be an All-American during her collegiate career, has only missed four attempted shots in four games. She leads the Pac-12 in field goal percentage with 83. Cunningham had four steals and three blocks against San Diego.

Pueyo is turning up the heat on the defensive end, collecting 13 steals in the last two games and using her length to deflect the ball, grab rebounds (a career-tying nine against San Diego) and average five assists across all three home games.

Pueyo is also leading the nation with a total of 19 steals (sixth in average 4.8 per game) and No. 12 in the Pac-12 in assists per game (4.3) as a part-time point guard. All of this is why Barnes said that one of the hardest things is when Pueyo is off the court.