2026 PHILLIPS 66 BIG 12 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 4, 2026

Becky Burke

Noelani Cornfield

Nora Francois

T-Mobile Center

Arizona Wildcats

Postgame Press Conference

Arizona State - 54, Arizona - 51

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Arizona head coach Becky Burke and student-athletes Noelani Cornfield and Nora Francois.

BECKY BURKE: Congratulations to Arizona State. I mean, when I look at the game and I look at the fact that we held them to 54 points, I think I would assume we win nine times out of 10, with defending that way and holding them, maybe to their season low.

But this year's just been a really, really big year of just really close games and lessons for us. And it's been hard. It's been really, really hard. But we've competed. We haven't quit. We haven't given up.

And for what we have and what we went through, I think our players did everything that they could to compete in the Big 12 this year. And for that I'm really, really proud. Proud of this group, proud of Lani and Nora and Micki (phonetic) for their last season.

But we competed just like we do. I would have loved to have been on some other wins this year because of the fact that we compete so hard. But credit to them for beating us you know today again. But I will say I'm looking forward to the future and to build off of this season.

But like I told our players, life is hard. You get adversity and you battle, and sometimes things go your way, sometimes they don't. We'll learn a lot from this year, but really excited for what's to come for Arizona women's basketball.

Q. What can you say about your first year in the Big 12, your foundational year there at Arizona, overall strength of the league?

BECKY BURKE: I'm very thankful to be the coach at the University of Arizona, with our fan base, our administration, just what we have as a national brand of basketball, and what we're going to be able to do with some time going into next season is really, really exciting. And we have everything that we need to be successful.

Our goal is to compete for Big 12 championships and national championships, and we're going to be better for this year and move forward.

Like I said, the future is very, very bright. But I'm thankful. I'm appreciative. I've got the best athletic director in the Big 12, in the country.

And like I said, with a little bit of time and some footing under our feet, I feel like we're in really, really good position for success for year two.

Q. Take us through the final huddle. Clearly, Sugapong was the first option. Who was two, three, four and five?

BECKY BURKE: Oh, geez. We know ASU is really physical. Baseline out of out of bounds. Sideline out of bounds. That's something that we are a little bit smaller. We are, you know, a little bit undersized compared to them. So they really give us a hard time trying to get the basketball in and get to our spots. And they're really, really physical with us in critical times. They have been all three times we've played them, and we haven't matched that physicality on the offensive end.

Sumayah and Lani are always options one and two, and then I pick who is three, four and five. But we didn't do a good enough job handling their physicality on that last possession. That's something that we've had trouble with the last couple times we've played them.