Women's scrimmage goes co-ed

Leigh-Anne Brown Arizona Daily Wildcat UA senior center Marte Alexander strips the ball from Bill Asher, a Wildcat "recruit," during last night's Red-Blue scrimmage. The Blue team won 64-61.

But when the rosters were announced to the crowd gathered at the McKale Center, there they were.

Tom Lerdahl, Bill Asher, Raheim Hobbs and Brent Braden all suited up for the Blue team, who won the game 64-61.

Head coach Joan Bonvicini said the men, who regularly practice with the team, had to play due to a rash of injuries in the days leading up to the game.

The Wildcats were already without Fatima Imara (torn anterior cruciate ligament) and LaKeisha Taylor (broken wrist) when they lost Felicity Willis (pulled wisdom teeth) and Monique Paige (kidney infection).

Those losses meant the Wildcats would have had to play with only five players on each team with no substitutions for the entire 40 minutes.

So on came the guys, whose presence was welcomed by both the fans and the women's players.

"It helped us a lot," said Mikko Giordano about playing against her opposite sex counterparts. "They are quicker and can jump higher. It brought a different style to the game."

Senior guard DeAngela Minter agreed that competing against the men changed the game for the better.

"You have to be smarter, crisper," she said. "They raise the level of our intensity. If you can guard guys, it does nothing but raise your confidence."

Joining the men on the Blue team for the first half were Shontey Hambrick, Amber Phoenix and Cha-Ron Walker. Bonvicini switched those three with Reshea Bristol, Monika Crank and Giordano for the second half.

Hobbs led the Blue team with 15 points, five rebounds, six assists and seven steals in 23 minutes.

The Red team had Marte Alexander, Adia Barnes, Bristol, Crank, Giordano, Lisa Griffith and DeAngela Minter.

Other than the men, the biggest story of the night was the play of Bristol, a redshirt freshman guard seeing her first game action.

Bristol tied Hobbs for the scoring lead with 15, hitting seven of 11 shots. She also grabbed five rebounds and added three steals and three assists in 30 minutes.

"I finally got to show what I have in store," she said.

Barnes and Minter contributed 13 and 12 points, respectively, and Alexander pulled down 12 rebounds for the Red team.

Bonvicini said her team looked good, but that improvements still had to be made before the Wildcats open their season Nov. 23 at home against UC-Santa Barbara.

"We need to get a better performance out of the post," she said. "The good thing is that this was a game that didn't count."

Bonvicini hopes the game will get the team refocused for practice this week leading to Monday's home exhibition game against the Kilsyth Cobras, a club team from Australia.