It was a weekend of sweeps for Arizona Women’s Basketball. After defeating No. 3 Stanford and Cal over the weekend for the program’s first road sweep of the Bay Area schools since 2001, Arizona has swept the Pac-12 Women’s Basketball Weekly Awards. Esmery Martinez was named the Pac-12 Player of the Week for the first time in her career, while Jada Williams took home her first Pac-12 Freshman of the Week award.
In the two wins, Esmery Martinez averaged 18.5 points, nine rebounds, and four assists. At Stanford, Martinez posted a 17-point, nine-rebound, one-assist game, and also tallied one steal. She followed it up with a season high-tying 20-point performance, as well as nine rebounds, and a season-high seven assists at Cal. She also scored her 1,500th career point on Friday in Palo Alto.
Jada Williams had a dominant weekend for the Wildcats, averaging 20.5 points, three rebounds, and 2.5 assists. Williams played arguably the best game of her young career on Friday against No. 3 Stanford, scoring season high-tying 23 points, including 14 in the fourth quarter, to rally Arizona to a 68-61 victory. Against Cal, Williams finished with 18 points, two rebounds, and three assists.
Adia Barnes’ squad has put themselves in a strong position to keep their NCAA Tournament appearance streak alive for a fourth season. Arizona started the weekend ranked 42 in the NET Rankings, but jumped to 36 after the win against Stanford. After the win at Cal, Arizona finished the weekend ranked 33 in the NET.
The Wildcats return home to finish the season against a pair of top ten opponents, and will compete against No. 7 USC and No. 8 UCLA on Thursday and Saturday.