High-scoring Oklahoma State runs away from Arizona women’s basketball

Staying consistent has been a problem for Arizona women’s basketball this season. The Wildcats had a hot start against the Oklahoma State Cowgirls but went away from what was working fairly early. The result was a 88-69 loss in McKale Center on Sunday afternoon.

“We showed glimpses, as usual, of being able to execute a game plan and play really, really hard within that game plan,” said Arizona head coach Becky Burke. “And, you know, just this, the same kind of moral of the story is that glimpses are not going to be enough for this year’s team, and it’s going to take the perfect storm and us putting together a 40-minute game.”

Arizona’s Kamryn Kitchen set the early pace. While the hot-shooting guard wasn’t scoring, she was finding open teammates. She had three assists in the first 3.5 minutes of the game. From that point, Arizona fell into 1-on-1 ball with players forcing shots and failing to pass the ball and work offense. At the end of the half, the Wildcats had seven assists and 13 made buckets. They ended with 15 assists on 28 made field goals and 18 turnovers.

“When you go away from what’s working, that’s generally not a good thing,” Burke said. “That’s not…high IQ basketball, and when something’s working, you generally want to stick to that. But we did become more 1-on-1, and this was probably the team that was the most physical with us in the Big 12. And we knew that going in. They play extremely hard. They got up in us. They were physical with us. We did not handle it well. This is a big, strong league, and even if we’re not big and strong, we need to act like we’re big and strong.”

The Cowgirls forced their pace and style on the home team. OSU only had six assists on 18 made shots in the first half, but the high-scoring squad was much more effective in that style. The visitors outshot Arizona 56.3 to 41.9 in the opening 20 minutes.

Arizona once again started a half on a hot streak in the second half, but OSU head coach Jacie Hoyt put an end to that quickly with a timeout just over a minute into the third quarter. The Wildcats had cut the lead to eight on a backdoor layup by Sumayah Sugapong and a 3-point basket by Kitchen, but the Cowgirls went on a 12-0 run to go up by 20 after the timeout.

“I just didn’t really like the energy that we had coming out, and I just said this to the team,” Hoyt said. “I had to do that last game too. And I am learning about our team. You know, at every coach is, right? Because of the portal and things like that, but you experience different things with them, and you’re trying to learn how they respond. And I feel like this team responds well when we need to regroup. We have the maturity to do that. So, we came out, we gave up the back door, come down, I think we missed a 3, come down, mess up a ball screen coverage. We go under. We’re supposed to go over. Just didn’t like it, so just felt like we needed to get everyone on the same page.”

The Cowgirls got on the same page. Arizona never got closer than 17 after that and trailed by as many as 25, although Burke made some changes that seemed to help the team get back on track.

After two straight turnovers, the Arizona head coach removed starting point guard Lani Cornfield from the game of her own volition for the first time since the Texas Tech game on Jan. 3, 2026. Cornfield had played every minute of the last six games except for two disqualifications due to fouls. Despite the difficulties, Burke had nothing but praise for her starting point guard.

“People are trying to make her life difficult, and I would, too” Burke said. “That’s part of the game plan when you play us, which I think is definitely opening some things up for Sumayah, opens some things up for the other players on our team. But, yeah, we need her to be facilitating and scoring in an equal clip. And what we asked Lani to do is a lot. We ask her to defend the other team’s best player, to be the most impactful offensively in almost every category. So we asked her to do a ton, you know, but I think she does a good job finding that balance when she feels like she could be aggressive and when she feels like she needs to facilitate. So I trust her with those things.”

Burke also put Blessing ‘Adde’ Adebanjo on the court. The freshman had 6 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist, and 1 block in just under 10 minutes on the court. She left the floor briefly after being called for an illegal screen, but Burke put her back in just minutes later.

“She finished well,” Burke said. “Today, she rolled to the basket hard. She set great screens, except for the one which I…have to go back and watch it. I don’t think that was her normal moving screen call. I think she’s really made a conscious effort to be coachable from that standpoint.”

Sugapong led the Wildcats with 25 points, tying a career high set while a freshman at UC San Diego. She went 9 for 16 from the floor, including hitting 5 of 7 shots from beyond the arc.

“They just kept going under stuff, so I just kept shooting it,” Sugapong said. “But, yeah, I was just trying to take what they gave me and staying aggressive throughout the whole game.”

Sugapong added 3 rebounds, 1 assist, and 2 steals. She was able to stay on the floor for 40 minutes because she picked up just two fouls.

“Anytime Sumayah doesn’t foul out, we’re going to celebrate that,” Burke joked.

Despite falling to 10-11 overall and 1-9 in league play, the Wildcats still drew a season-high 7,802 fans. It was the first time attendance broke 7,000 this year. Both Burke and Hoyt expressed their gratitude for the support.

“I just want to start out by shouting out the fans here,” Hoyt said. “This was an incredible environment to get to play in today. This is my first time being here, so I’ve heard about it, but to get to be a part of it was just really, really cool. And I think even just looking at this [media] room, all of you, you’re doing it right here, and thank you for just showing up for women’s basketball because this is a really special place.”

Burke echoed that, especially given Arizona’s record.

“Living is hard after a loss,” Burke joked before getting serious again. “Let me be very, very clear. I want to thank every single fan that was in the building today for showing out and showing up for us. This is the only program in the country where we can be having a building season, and we can be in kind of the valley that we’re in, and still have a record crowd in game number nine or 10 of the Big 12. This doesn’t happen. This is a very, very special and unique place, and I want every single person that shows up and buys a ticket to our game to understand and know that we don’t take it lightly. We do not take it for granted. And I’m just so appreciative, and I know our players are as well, because, like I said, this is rare and it does not go unnoticed, and we need them to keep coming and and supporting, and when we get this thing rolling, I want those people to say that they were here from from the ground level.”