Arizona women’s basketball dropped its second consecutive game with a 72-69 to New Mexico on Sunday afternoon. While the Wildcats made some improvements from their disappointing loss to Southern four days prior, they trailed for the majority of the game and couldn’t tie it up in the closing minute. Arizona coach Becky Burke believes it’s on the team to get back on track with a Wednesday late morning matchup against Eastern Kentucky on the horizon.“That’s completely on them,” Burke said after the game. “I’m gonna continue to tell them the truth and challenge them and push them.”Our recap of the game can be found here. Below is what Burke, Lani Cornfield and Tanyuel Welch had to say about the loss. Burke on her overall thoughts on the game: “I’m encouraged by what I saw today. New Mexico is a very, very, very good basketball team. They dang near beat Cincy last week, who’s obviously in our conference, and one of the better teams in our conference. So it’s really encouraging to go out, respond the way that we did, based on our last game, and a similar style of play and some length and some athleticism. So I was encouraged by what I saw today. I think we took steps forward. I think we got better. I’m not a moral victory person at the end of the day, I’m well aware that we lost the game, but I think with this team, we need to appreciate and stay positive about growth and improvement. And generally, when we’ve grown and improved in games, they’ve come out as wins. But today, it didn’t. But we absolutely got better today. We handled ourselves better. We fought through adversity. We made some runs. There was multiple times down 10, we could have shut it down and and called it a day and just given up on plays, and just let let it go to 15 or 20. And we didn’t do that. So I was proud of our fight. I was proud of our improvement. On areas where Arizona struggled: “But this is a team like I told them in the locker room that everything matters. Every play matters, every possession matters, every free throw matters. And we we had some self-inflicted wounds today that I believe if we controlled those things a little bit better, more of a game I feel like we lost then, then they won, if that makes sense. We’re 17 for 27 from the free throw line. That’s never going to be acceptable or never going to win you a basketball game. Some open looks we had from three throughout the game that we got knock those down. So some things I think we can control do a little bit better. I felt like we kind of let it slip a little bit from us and miss some easy opportunities that we could have easily put ourselves in a position to win the game. But New Mexico is a great team. I think they’re going to do extremely well this year. And, yeah, just just proud of our effort, but ultimately, obviously disappointed with the loss.”On Nora Francois getting the start: “I’m a ;What have you done for me lately, coach.‘ I mean, no one starts just to start. No one starts just because they’ve been starting. Nora had a great game in our last game, she was our most efficient post player. She had a really good two days of prep for this game. And so I reward that. And they’re gonna go battle it out this week for Wednesday’s game. Same thing. Like T (Tanyuel Welch) played great today. Doesn’t mean she automatically gets to start the next game. She’s gonna have to practice well tomorrow and practice well the next day. And that’s that’s how we need to keep it very competitive from a practice standpoint. And everything is earned in our program.” On Sumayah Sugapong not playing beyond the first quarter: “It’s just a decision I made. Again, some nights it’s people’s nights, some nights it’s not. From both an offensive and a defensive standpoint. When the ball is moving and flowing and and there’s a certain group on the floor, I’m going to keep it that way, right? And then when we’re getting stops and we’re able to keep people in front on the perimeter, I’m going to keep it that way with that certain group. So it doesn’t have anything to do with, like, what Sumayah will be for us next game. It’s just kind of how today went and the way that things flowed from a personnel standpoint.”On New Mexico’s size advantage: “Yeah, they had size inside, and then every guard position that they have, they were bigger than us at every position, and most teams from here on out will be except for the exception of a couple. So, going big for us, I think, will help us at times offensively, but I don’t think we’re there quite yet where we feel comfortable just putting a huge lineup in, especially against other teams’ guards. So could it benefit you a little bit defensively, maybe, and we’ll play around with some more things, but you know, we’re just going to be smaller, and we just need to put ourselves. Like missing 10 free throws wasn’t because we were smaller, right? So I still think we were able to be really effective with the lineups that we had.”On Arizona’s final play: “Yeah, I still think we probably could executed what we had drawn, but it was a little bit of a funky alignment. Probably should have called another time out there in hindsight, and I wish I would have, but it was kind of a smart move on his end. We need three, and they gave us two, but think we panicked a little bit. Didn’t run it exactly how I would have liked, but I should have called another time out.”On limiting the number of turnovers: “Huge improvement. We had the boys beating the crap out of us all week. I mean, literally fouling, hacking us, hitting us, pulling us pulling us just because we didn’t handle that physicality well. And I don’t think New Mexico was as physical as Southern was, but I also think our mindset was ready to handle physicality today, even if they brought that. But we did a heck of a job taking care of the basketball. So that’s the frustrating thing. We took did a heck of a job taking care of it. We played zone. We followed a game plan. We forced them to shoot 36 threes. There’s just some some things here and there. Every everything matters for our team. And we came up three points short. And I think there’s a few things we could say we wish we had back.”On not letting losses snowball: “That’s completely on them. I’m gonna continue to tell them the truth and challenge them and push them. Like I said in the locker room, as kind of positive as our locker room just was, like we’re on a two game losing streak right now. Point blank period. We are practicing tomorrow like we are desperate. And so if we practice any other way tomorrow then we just don’t understand what every game means to this team. So I have faith that they’re feeling good about the growth and the improvement, and I also have faith that they’re going to be mature about it and understand that we just took a loss. And that’s the reality of it. So practice will be first day of prep for Eastern Kentucky on Wednesday tomorrow, and we’re going to get back after it. There’s desperation after after losses that you should be practicing with and talking about with your teammates, and just attention. They should be living on the free throw line these next three days, and so that’s player led a lot of the times. That’s conversations they’re having while they’re tying their shoes getting ready to head out to the practice floor. And yeah, if I got to motivate them to win a game after losing two straight, then I didn’t recruit players with the correct mindset.”Welch on her best game at Arizona so far: “Honestly, I’ve just been patient. I’m not afraid of hard work or working hard in general. I just show up every day and practice, and I control what I can control, I take my opportunities, I make the best of everything. So the biggest thing for me is to just go out there and do everything as hard as I can be, what I need to be for my team and everything else will come. And that’s what happened.” Cornfield on what was different today in limiting turnovers: “Nothing. I mean, that’s the game of basketball. There’s some days I’m gonna have off games, and there’s some days I’m gonna have good games as the point guard. It’s my job take care of the ball, and last game was last game. But, I mean, like coach said, we were getting beat up all week in practice, I know exactly what my role is and what I need to do with the ball, and so that was what was at the forefront today.”