Shaina Pellington, No. 6 Arizona women blow out Idaho 96-42

TUCSON, Arizona – Arizona coach Adia Barnes was planning to give her bench players extra minutes against Idaho. The extra points were a bonus.

Reserve Shaina Pellington scored 16 points and reserve Helena Pueyo had all of her 14 points in the first half to lead the sixth-ranked Wildcats past Idaho 96-42 on Wednesday.

Cate Reese scored 12 points, Aari McDonald had 11 points and six assists, and reserve Lauren Ware had 10 points and a career-high 13 rebounds for the Wildcats (6-0), who got 58 points from their bench.

“The plan was to distribute the minutes as evenly as I could and get multiple players in double digits, because that’s what it is all about,” Barnes said.

“When you can go into your bench and not drop off and still do things you want to do, it means a lot. You want confidence going into a break, and you want to go in on a good note. And then that next game is Stanford. A very important time to be playing good basketball.”

The Wildcats, who pulled away from Idaho with 16-0 and 24-0 runs, will host No. 1 Stanford (7-0) on Jan. 1.

Beyonce Bea had 11 points and 10 rebounds and Gina Marxen had 11 points for the Vandals (3-3), who shot 26.4% from the field and made three of their first 19 second-half field-goal attempts.

“They are No. 6 in the country for a reason,” Idaho coach Jon Newlee said. “They are very athletic, and on film you don’t really get to see what they have.”

Pueyo tied a career high with four 3-pointers, making all four of her attempts in the second quarter.

“I think I was on fire a little bit,” Pueyo said.

“I love to see everybody converting and contributing to the team,” McDonald said. “I think if we keep playing like this, we’ll be scary good. Fifty-eight bench points. That’s just incredible.”

Arizona had a 54-28 rebounding edge and scored 25 second-chance points and 56 points in the paint. Idaho entered ranked 13th in the country in rebounding at 48.4 per game.