TUCSON, Ariz. – JaLea Bennett scored a career-high 26 points to lead Arizona (3-6) to an 83-44 victory over New Mexico State (3-6) on Tuesday morning in McKale Center on School Day.
 
"We worked a lot on defense lately," head coach Adia Barnes said. "In the past week we worked on defense every single day. We worked hard with 1-on-1's and 2-on-2's. Today we were really aggressive on the ball on defense because everything has been ultra-competitive and it's showing that we have to play hard, and we have to do the little things. I'm really glad that we were able to apply it and we were able to know their team.
 
Bennett was a monster today, specifically in the first half as she scored 17 points in the first 20 minutes of the game, finishing with a career-high 26. She shot 11-17 from the field and pitched in seven rebounds, four of them on the offensive end. The senior has now scored 20+ points three times in the last four games.
 
"The biggest thing for me was practice," Bennett said. "I've been doing really well in practice this week. Right after pregame this morning coach Barnes said 'Go out there and play like you've been playing in practice and do your thing'. Today felt really natural, so it was a lot of fun."
 
Marlee Kyles had a nice night off the bench as she scored 14 points and grabbed a season-high six rebounds in 29 minutes. Lucia Alonso also pitched in a nice game for the Wildcats with 11 points, four assists, three made three-pointers and no turnovers in 26 minutes.
 
As a team, Arizona outrebounded New Mexico State 44-31 on the back of Sam Thomas' nine. Fifteen of Arizona's 44 rebounds were on the offensive end, which led to 18 second-chance points as opposed to New Mexico State's three second-chance points.
 
The Wildcats got off to a great start in the first quarter, specifically Bennett as she outscored New Mexico State 11-8 by herself. At the end of the period, Arizona was up 17-8. In the second quarter, Arizona kept it rolling as they outscored the Aggies 26-15, giving the Wildcats a 43-23 lead at halftime, which is their largest halftime lead to date. The Wildcats forced 11 first-half turnovers and allowed New Mexico State to shoot just 39% in the first half.
 
Arizona got off to a 9-0 start in the third quarter and would push their lead to 65-33 at the end of the period thanks to 60% shooting by the Wildcats and just 33% by the Aggies. The fourth quarter was much of the same as Arizona outscored New Mexico State 18-11, giving Arizona its largest win Feb. 16, 2012.

It'll be a quick turnaround for the Wildcats are they will host Hawaii on Sunday, Dec. 17 at 2 p.m. MST.
 
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