Inside The Wildcats

Arizona WBB Extends Its Unbeaten Start

Arizona defeated Northern Arizona 87-76 Friday night.
Ari Koslow|
Oct 21, 2025; Kansas City, MO, USA; Arizona head coach Becky Burke speaks to media during Big 12 Womenís Basketball Media Day at T-Mobile Center. Mandatory Credit: Sophia Scheller-Imagn Images
Oct 21, 2025; Kansas City, MO, USA; Arizona head coach Becky Burke speaks to media during Big 12 Womenís Basketball Media Day at T-Mobile Center. Mandatory Credit: Sophia Scheller-Imagn Images | Sophia Scheller-Imagn Images

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Arizona Wildcats

Arizona women's basketball moved to 4-0 on the season with a 87-76 win over Northern Arizona Friday night at McKale Center. Despite the win, UA coach Becky Burke was not pleased with the overall performance by the Wildcats.

  • "Obviously I'm thankful for the win and anytime you can win, we're appreciative of that and it's hard earned but I'm disappointed in a lot of different ways," Burke said. "In a lot of different area, it was not a clean game. It was not a pretty game. Not a game I loved our attention to detail... I didn't think we had toughness for a lot of it. One of those games where you win, but it doesn't feel like you won."

It was another slow start for Arizona as it fell behind 9-4 over five minutes into the game. The Wildcats were able to respond with a big second quarter to take a 37-31 lead going into halftime. They held onto the lead the entire second half, but still allowed 45 points in the second half to the Lumberjacks, which Burke wasn't happy about.

  • "We just gave up 76 points to a team that I thought we were going to be able to keep in the 50's," she said. "... I'm probably as disappointed as you've seen me on this podium for sure."

The Wildcats hadn't allowed more than 64 points in their first three games to start the season. They have strived to be more of a defensive-first team under Burke as she has established since taking over the program.

The star of the show for Northern Arizona to keep them in the game was freshman Naomi White who dropped 28 points on 8-of-17 shooting from the field and 4-of-9 from deep. She did also commit six turnovers. The game plan Burke had implemented going into the game to defend her wasn't able to get done by the Wildcats on the defensive side of the ball.

  • "The game plan was not what you saw," Burke said. "I mean the game plan was not to give her 28 (points). She played 11 less minutes than she usually does and hung 28 on us. We didn't make her catches difficult, we didn't crowd her and we didn't switch high on her.
Buffalo Bulls head coach Becky Burke works the sideline during the first half of the Mid-American Conference Tournament women's championship game at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, Saturday, March 16, 2024, in Cleveland, Ohio. | Jeff Lange / USA TODAY NETWORK
  • Now, don't get me wrong, she made some tough ones, but for the most part, I don't think she's leaving this gym like 'Oh, I had to work for everything I got against Arizona' and that was what we said we needed to make her feel coming in."

It was another big scoring performance from Mickayla Perdue as she dropped a team-high 27 points. There were three other players who also scored in double figures.

Arizona has two more games at home this upcoming week against Northern Colorado on Tuesday and Cal State Bakersfield on Saturday.

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Ari Koslow
ARI KOSLOW

Ari Koslow is a sports writer covering the University of Arizona athletics at On SI. Koslow has been covering Arizona sports for several years. Born and raised in Seattle, he is a diehard Seahawks fan and a longtime sufferer of the Mariners. He is a huge fantasy football fanatic. Koslow is a graduate of Arizona’s School of Journalism.