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Her Arizona Wildcats had just won a basketball game for the first time. An exhibition game, yes. But it was a needed step forward for a squad that had struggled in so many ways the week before.

Arizona defeated Cal State LA 59-43 Thursday night at McKale Center, wrapping up the exhibition season with a 1-1 record. The Wildcats play their first regular-season game next Thursday at home against UC Riverside. They head into their prep for the opener with positive vibes.

“Were we perfect? No. Are there still plenty of areas to improve on? Yes. But like we talked about yesterday in the press conference, I wanted to see the response of our team,� Burke said. “We improved today. We got better today. We got the monkey off our back. It wasn’t perfect, but we needed to improve on some things and I saw them improve.�

The previous week, Arizona got outrebounded, 45-37, by an undersized West Texas A&M team. The Wildcats also surrendered 16 offensive rebounds.

Arizona controlled the glass this time, outboarding Cal State LA 45-31. The Golden Eagles had only seven offensive rebounds and just two second-chance points.

Burke considers rebounding to be a matter of effort and toughness — among the aspects of the game she classifies as non-negotiable. The Wildcats made significant progress in those areas.

“We were talking, we were bouncy, our body language was good,� Burke said. “All the things that we just didn’t respond to well last week, I wanted to see improvement in those areas. I thought if we did that, the result would take care of itself. And it did.�

Burke used a different, younger starting lineup, but veteran guards Noelani Cornfield and Sumayah Sugapong remained the constants. Cornfield had a team-high 13 points, seven rebounds, four steals and three assists. Sugapong had nine points, seven boards and two made 3-pointers.

Two other Wildcats scored in double figures off the bench: guard Mickayla Perdue (11 points) and forward Nora Francois (10).

Arizona shot better from the floor (41.2%) and moved the ball with greater purpose. The Wildcats had 12 assists on 21 field goals. The previous week, they had just six assists on 21 made shots.

“This is a team game,� Cornfield said. “The first thing we wanted to emphasize was playing as a team, and that’s what we did tonight.�

Arizona also defended better, especially in the fourth quarter. The Wildcats scored the last 10 points after Cal State LA had trimmed its deficit to 49-43; the Golden Eagles’ last basket came with 6:55 to play. ÃÛÌÒÓ°ÏñAV outscored Cal State LA 14-5 in the final period.

“They started to come back and had their run,� Cornfield said. “That’s just us talking in the huddles and timeouts: ‘All right, they have their run, we gotta continue to get stops.’ Just because we were up however many points, just because it’s the fourth quarter doesn’t mean the game is over. We had to play until the buzzer sounded, and that’s what we did.�

Arizona appeared to be in command in the third quarter with a 41-29 lead and the ball. But Sugapong was called for a flagrant foul after getting tripped, tumbling to the floor and accidentally kicking a Cal State LA player in the face.

The Golden Eagles then went on an 11-4 run to make it 45-40 early in the fourth quarter. Sugapong answered with a floater in the lane, and Perdue followed with a scooping layup to make it 49-40.

“My mindset is, let me worry about the refs,� Burke said. “Let the fans do their thing. And then we lock in and we stay in our circle, in our bubble. We can’t look at the scoreboard, look at the replay, see what happened and complain.

“We huddle, we stay locked in and we stay focused because the wheels can come off in that moment. I’ve seen that happen before. But if we have a mature team that stays locked in and stays together through that, that’s a good sign.�

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