TUCSON, Ariz. – The LMU women's basketball team moved to 2-0 on Tuesday night, defeating Arizona (1-1) 66-64 at the McKale Center in a game that went down to the wire. The Lions held an 11-point lead heading into the fourth, 53-42, but the Wildcats came back fighting to force a thrilling ending.
 
LMU was without leading scorer and All-WCC guard Gabby Green in the matchup, as she was sidelined due to injury. The Lions felt her absence but battled through and produced a total team effort to get past the Wildcats on the road.
 
Sophomore Jasmine Jones had a dominant night for the Lions. She took charge from the beginning, posting 14 points on 6-of-7 shooting in the first half. Jones' early performance set the tone for the Lions, and senior Andee Velasco capped off LMU's strong first half with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to end the second, putting the Lions up 36-24 at the break.
 
The Lions were able to maintain a double-digit lead through three as they entered the final frame up 53-42.
 
Arizona came out fighting in the fourth, going on multiple runs to cut into the Lions' lead. The Wildcats were able to trim LMU's lead to a single point by playing the foul game and capitalizing on missed free throws by LMU.
 
Despite a few misses from the charity stripe by the team down the stretch, Jones came up with two incredibly clutch free throws with 7.7 seconds remaining to ultimately seal the Lions' victory.
 
The Long Beach native finished with a career-high 19 points (6-of-9 FG), eight rebounds, two steals and one block.
 
Senior Bree Alford displayed all-out hustle the entire night as she led all rebounders in the game with 13 boards to go along with eight points. Redshirt freshman Brittney Reed posted 10 points to join Jones in the night's double-figure club. Sophomore Chelsey Gipson led the Lions in assists with four and also tallied nine points.
 
Junior Raychel Stanley also had nine points with four boards. Velasco finished with eight points, five rebounds and three assists. Junior Cierra Belvin brought the defensive intensity in the victory, snagging a game-high four steals and putting continuous pressure on the Wildcats' offense.
 
As a team, LMU had nine steals and forced 18 Arizona turnovers. The Lions held the Wildcats to just 14.3 percent shooting from 3-point range and 30.5 percent from the field on the night. LMU's largest lead in the win was 14 points early on in the second quarter.
 
"We knew they were going to come back," LMU head coach Charity Elliott said. "We knew it was going to finish that way. As many mistakes as we made, we were able to do just enough, get the ball to the right amount of people, make enough free throws, get enough stops to get the win. We can learn so much from this kind of a game because of the environment, because we had so many people in foul trouble. We had to keep subbing people in and out, getting people into different positions. We have a lot to work on but it was huge for this team to step up and get a big road win."
 
The Lions have now won back-to-back games against Pac-12 opponents after opening the 2018-19 season with a 69-63 win over UCLA at home on Nov. 6. This also marks LMU's second consecutive win against the Wildcats as they defeated Arizona at Gersten Pavilion last season, 84-70.
 
"Jasmine was phenomenal," Elliott continued. "I thought Cierra's defense was amazing. Bree dominated on the boards and that was a huge team win. We were missing an important piece of our team, and everybody did just enough to get out of here with the win. Sometimes that's just what you have to do."
 
LMU will play one more road contest at UC Santa Barbara on Monday, Nov. 19, before returning home to host the annual LMU Thanksgiving Classic Nov. 23-24.