Reports: 3 more Arizona women’s basketball players in the portal

Mar 23, 2023 - 3:20 AM

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According to senior women’s basketball writer Chantel Jennings of The Athletic, Madi Conner is not the only Arizona women’s basketball player to put her name in the portal on Wednesday. Added to the list are freshmen Lemyah Hylton and Paris Clark, as well as junior Lauren Ware.

Hylton played sparingly this season while Ware was out for the entire year with a knee injury. Ware returned to practice prior to the Pac-12 Tournament, but she did not appear in any games so as not to waste a year of eligibility.

Hylton and Clark were part of the class that included four Top 100 players. Clark committed late after decommitting from UCLA following the Bruins landing Kiki Rice.

Clark was a force on the court when she got her chance later in the season. Arizona head coach Adia Barnes said after the win against West Virginia in the opening round of the NCAA tournament that she did not care that Clark went 0-4 from the field because of how well she rebounded and did other things on the court.

Ware dislocated her knee last year and was reinjured in practice prior to this season. She underwent surgery and was declared out for the year before it started. Barnes had pointed to her absence as a big blow inside where the Wildcats were undersized this season. She had talked about not wanting to use Ware in the postseason because it would waste an entire year. Ware will apparently use that year elsewhere.

Hylton was one of the top-rated international players in last year’s class, but she had difficulty finding her place in the rotation. She averaged 8.1 minutes in 15 games. She scored 1.5 points and grabbed 1.1 rebounds per game.

Clark averaged 13.2 minutes in 24 games. She averaged 3.8 points and 2.8 rebounds per game. She shot 36.4 percent from the field, 34.6 from the 3-point line and 45.8 percent from the free throw line.

Ware will likely be the biggest loss for the Wildcats simply because they have been slim in the frontcourt, although they still have Maya Nnaji and are expecting Breya Cunningham in the fall. Whether Esmery Martinez will return for her fifth season is still up in the air.

Ware averaged 18.8 minutes per game over her career at Arizona. She shot 41.8 percent from the field, 25 percent from 3-point range, and 69.3 percent from the line. She averaged 4.8 points, 4.2 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game.

Ware originally committed to play for both Arizona women’s basketball and volleyball, but she never played for the volleyball team. She spent last spring training and playing in a tournament with the volleyball program but ultimately stuck with just basketball.