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Arizona women beat Washington, 75-53, behind 20 from McDonald and Thomas on Senior Day

Posted at 7:20 PM, Feb 14, 2021
and last updated 2021-02-14 21:20:52-05

TUCSON, Arizona — Sam Thomas scored 20 points, including hitting a career-high six 3-pointers, and Aari McDonald also had 20 points to help No. 10 Arizona run its winning streak to six games with a 75-53 Pac-12 victory over Washington on Sunday.

Cate Reese had 12 points, Shaina Pellington had 11 points and Thomas added a season-high seven rebounds for the Wildcats (14-2, 12-2), off to their best league start in program history.

Arizona shot 55.1% from the field, 63.6 in the first half, and made nine of their first 10 3-pointers. They finished 12-of-16 from three-point range.

Quay Miller had 13 points and nine rebounds and Haley Van Dyke had 12 points for the Huskies (5-11, 2-11), who broke an eight-game losing streak at Arizona State on Friday.

The Wildcats opened a 13-point lead in the first quarter, and Thomas’ fifth three gave them a 48-28 lead three minutes into the second half.

McDonald, who played her freshman year at Washington, has scored in double figures in 82 consecutive games, the longest current streak in NCAA Division I. She added eight assists on Sunday.

The Wildcats have limited their last eight opponents to an average of 51.6 points a game and have benefited from 19.8 turnovers per game.

BIG PICTURE

Washington could not keep up with Arizona, but it appears to have a solid group of building blocks in junior Alex Van Dyke, sophomore Miller, freshman Tameiya Sadler and redshirt freshman Nia Lowery, a four-star recruit who missed 2019-20 with a foot injury. The Huskies limited Arizona State to 35 points Friday, the fewest points by a conference opponent since 1978.

Arizona and Stanford (15-2) are the only Pac-12 teams with two conference losses, and if the Wildcats win their final three scheduled games they could claim their first outright league title, at least by winning percentage. The Wildcats and Cardinal are scheduled to play at Stanford on Feb. 22. Arizona and Stanford were co-champs in 2003-04 in Nicole Powell’s senior year with the Cardinal.