Arizona women’s basketball played second straight game without a starting point guard Shaina Pellington. After leaning Kailyn Gilbert and Madi Conner in the first game they went to Helena Pueyo and Maya Nnaji in the second to defeat San Diego 86-60 on Saturday.
Pueyo scored a career-high 22 points on 9-of-12 shooting, including connecting on all three of his 3-pointers. She added five rebounds, four assists, one block and four steals.
Freshman Nnaji also hit a career-high 17 points on perfect 7-of-7 shooting. She added seven rebounds, one assist and one steal.
The pair were two of four double-digit Wildcats. Jade Loville had 15 points on 6 of 12 shooting to go with four rebounds and an assist.
Gilbert had his second straight double-digit game. The freshman guard scored 10 points, grabbed five rebounds, delivered two assists and had two steals.
Esmery Martinez once again led the Wildcats in rebounds. The forward just missed another double-double with nine points and nine rebounds. She added block and steal to her stat line.
The Toreros stayed close for the first six minutes of the game. At 4:06, Arizona’s lead was just two points after Gilbert hit a pair of free throws to give the Wildcats a 10-8 lead. San Diego would no longer score in the quarter. Gilbert’s free throws were the start of a 10-0 run that gave an 18-8 lead after the opening 10 minutes.
USD came within five points in the second quarter, but UA again launched a run to create space between the two teams. By the end of the half, the lead had increased to 15.
The Toreros reduced their lead, but couldn’t get closer than 14 points in the fourth quarter. Nnaji gave the Wildcats their biggest lead when she made her only 3-point shot with 1:49 left in the game. That put Arizona ahead 84-54.
Arizona goes 6-0 on the season while USD drops to 4-3. The Wildcats will play next when they travel to Albuquerque to take on New Mexico on Sunday, December 4. Their next game at McKale Center will be against Kansas on December 8.
