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Sloppy play leads to Wildcat loss to Kiwis

A slew of turnovers and missed foul shots led to a 70-62 loss by the UA women's basketball team to the New Zealand National Team last night at McKale Center.

"I am very disappointed, but the best thing is that it is definitely a wake-up call," head coach Joan Bonvicini said. "I think you have to give credit to the New Zealand National Team, as from the very beginning of the game, they established it as a physical game and I really felt that they out-hustled us."

The glaring statistic on the box score at the end of the night was Arizona's 34 turnovers.

"We had too many turnovers at inopportune times," Bonvicini said. "We put some runs together and we able to get some leads, but then we'd just let them get back in the ball game from either turning the ball over or not getting a hand up. We had a lot turnovers, it was terrible."

To accompany the turnovers, deplorable foul shooting by senior Tatum Brown also contributed to the Arizona loss.

The Wildcat guards kept pushing the ball inside to Brown, but the Kiwi defense responded by sending her to the foul line where she hit only 3-of-9 free throws.

"I cannot believe my foul shooting, it was personally very disappointing," Brown said. "It is all mental, as I need to get my head into the game, take my time and just get it done."

To add insult to injury for the evening, senior forward Angela Lackey and sophomore guard Tysell Bozeman were not dressed for the game, and Bonvicini was hesitant to comment about it.

"Angie Lackey and Tysell Bozeman will not accompany us to Hawaii. They're being suspended for a violation of team rules, they will be back after that, but they will be in practice," Bonvicini said. "We've had distractions this week, unfortunately it has affected what we do, so we need to get back on track. We need to get back to being focused and playing hard and being together."

On a positive note, Arizona shot 52 percent from the field, with sophomore forward Elizabeth Pickney leading the way with 17 points.

Arizona players agreed that the saving grace of the evening was that this game was only an exhibition game and does not count toward the regular season standings.

"I think it's good to have this type of challenge early in the season, it's a good wake-up call for us," senior guard Felecity Willis said. "We're ready for practice (today) as we should've come out more focused."