TUCSON - The Arizona women's basketball team defeated Point Loma 52-44Â on Wednesday in its final exhibition game of the season.
Salimatou Kourouma finished the night as the leading scorer on either team, tallying 17 points to go alongside five rebounds and six steals. Maya Nnaji also posted a double-digit night with 14 points, and the sophomore added six rebounds to her stat line.
Kourouma opened the game with a jumper that Isis Beh followed up with a steal on the other end of the court. The ball made its way down court to Nnaji, who got the easy layup to take an early lead over the Sea Lions.
Point Loma found itself with the lead halfway through the first quarter, but a three from Nnaji at the end of the quarter put the Cats back out in front heading into the second period.
Jada Williams scored the first points of the second quarter, but her bucket in the first two minutes was the only one scored by either team for several minutes until Kourouma poked the ball away from Point Loma and dropped in a layup, picking up the and-one in the process.
Kourouma was the leading scorer going into halftime with nine points on 3-of-5 shooting and additionally had four steals. All five Wildcats had at least two rebounds after the first 20 minutes of the game.
Nnaji got the first score for the Cats in the third and was followed by a layup from Williams on the next possession to give Arizona its largest lead of the game to that point. She and Kourouma each entered double digits in the third quarter.
Arizona rounded out the game with eight rebounds in the final quarter and an appearance by Breya Cunningham, her first as a Wildcat. Cunningham dropped in a bucket and made a block to help secure the Arizona victory.
The Wildcats open regular-season competition Monday, Nov. 6 at New Mexico State in a 6:00 p.m. matchup.
