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Even though they lost and were shorthanded with two starters out — Jada Williams, with a foot injury and Mailien Rolf, with a concussion — the Wildcats played team ball and turned it up a notch.

Both Williams and Rolf are expected to return when Arizona (15-12, 6-8) hosts BYU (13-2, 4-10) on Wednesday.

With only four games remaining in the regular season, the Wildcats are spending extra time watching film and having practices geared to improving the little things.

After practice on Monday afternoon, Arizona assistant Anthony Turner sat down with the Star to talk about defense, Wildcats who are stepping up in the right moment and how the team has gotten better.

Q: Is there anyone who has really surprised you? You knew they had it in them but they are really coming through at this point in the season.

A: “Paulina (Paris) is one that is surprising (her ability to get to the basket). Isis (Beh) and what she’s been able to do at the four spot as a natural five. We knew Lauryn (Swann) was a good scorer. I just didn’t realize how good. She has the ability to come off screens and shoot on the move. She has the ability to shoot with her feet set. She has the ability to shoot off the dribble, get to the rim and score. She’s got a good mid-range game. Teams have taken notice, and they’re playing her differently now. (They are) playing her certain ways, and inventing defense — putting hands in her face at all times.

“We talked about people that do little things that may not get recognized. Montaya (Dew) … is one of our leaders in assist-to-turnover ratio. … Some of our best lineups, when you look at them analytically, are when she and Breya (Cunningham) are on the floor together, because Breya is a great scorer; Montaya is a great passer. There’s a good connection there. She’s been crashing the boards a lot more lately and that puts stress on the other team to have to box out. Sometimes she’s getting tips and deflections and somebody else is getting a rebound. It’s been a pleasant surprise that she’s contributing in that way.�

Q: You’ve been mixing in a few different looks on defense lately, like a triangle and two. How do you think that’s helped you?

A: “When teams are in a good rhythm and they’re in a good flow, they don’t have to think. But if for one second, they have to pause and hesitate, even great 3-point shooters, it’s not the same 3-point shot that they get. It’s a different rhythm. Sometimes you can make great 3-point shooters miss even when they’re wide open because they’re thinking a little bit. Also, when you go a triangle and two, you’ve got two players that are face guarding, two of the better player scoring players. If they don’t get touches, then, as Michael Jordan (said), ‘If they can’t catch the ball, they can’t score the ball.’ You take those two out and make other people — who are more passers, more screeners — have to step up and score, then that creates a different dynamic.�

Q: You were disrupting on defense from the tip Sunday afternoon, forcing TCU to call a timeout a minute into the game. How do you think your defense frustrated them?

A: “Knowing (TCU coach) Mark Campbell for a long time, I know that he’s very familiar with Arizona basketball and how we like to play from his time at Oregon. We want to pressure. We want to deny. We want to trap. I can guarantee you that they were working on that in practice all week long, and so when they came in there, we didn’t do anything special or different to start the game. We just played Arizona basketball. I think he was a little frustrated because Arizona basketball was turning them over and making them make uncharacteristic bad decisions, bad passes. In my opinion, he wanted to try to get that corrected a little bit and then it becomes a chess match. Then we throw in the triangle and two and go back to it. As a coach, the fun part about coaching is looking down and seeing, ‘OK, what are you going to do? Well, here’s the counter, then we’ve got to figure out their counter.’�

Q: You were right in that game, and despite being tired in the fourth quarter you fought until the end. What do you think that says about the Wildcats right now?

A: “We just want that to be a part of our DNA, that toughness piece. I was talking to Jada the other day, and she was relaying a conversation (she had with) somebody on the team. I remember it was said something like, ‘We’re going in the game without a point guard.’ And Jada’s response was, ‘No, we’ve got five people. We got five bodies. We go out, we go play, we go win.’ That’s the toughness.

“Earlier in the year, maybe that wouldn’t happen. We saw that against NAU when (Jada) missed that game. We have grown in that regard, and that’s encouraging to see. The thing about an Adia Barnes coached teams is, throughout the course of the season — more than any other team I’ve ever seen — her teams always grow and get better and get better and get better. By the time late February hits, they’re playing their best.�