Beavers face uphill battle against eighth-ranked Arizona

Dan Hoffman Arizona Daily Wildcat UA sophomore guard Felecity Willis (23) soars over Arizona States' senior guard Stephanie Freeman (55) for a lay-up during the Wildcats' victory over the Sun Devils Saturday. The game was Willis' first time starting for Arizona at home.

Playing basketball for the Oregon State women's basketball team can't be a lot of fun.

Not if you like winning anyway.

Coming into tonight's game with the eighth-ranked Wildcats, Oregon State stands in last place in the Pacific 10 Conference with a 1-12 mark and a 6-16 overall record.

And it is not going to get any easier with a 7 p.m. tipoff against an Arizona squad on a mission to win the Pac-10 title and assure a high seed in next month's NCAA Tournament.

But motivation probably will not be the deciding factor. There are too many reasons the game should be a blowout by halftime:

Oregon State has lost nine games in a row, including being swept at home by the Washington schools last weekend.

And with no momentum, they have to face the same team that beat them 84-58 in Corvallis, Ore., less than three weeks ago.

In that game, Arizona used a 28-point performance from senior forward Adia Barnes and scored 45 points off 38 OSU turnovers for the easy win.

The Beavers also have to face an Arizona crowd that is gaining a reputation as being one of the loudest among Pac-10 schools.

"This was the toughest crowd we've played in front of all year," Arizona State head coach Charlie Turner Thorne said after her team lost 92-57 Saturday.

After UA's loss to Oregon last month, a team the Wildcats host Saturday night, UA head coach Joan Bonvicini started playing with her lineup, and the results were immediate.

The Wildcats' new starting lineup, which debuted Saturday and will most likely remain intact for the rest of the season, features three point guards.

DeAngela Minter, Felecity Willis and Lisa Griffith now play at the same time, creating several match up problems for opposing defenses.

The change also seems to have lit a fire under the three guards.

"We just created our own things as guards," Willis said about the ASU game. "We're not as robotic as we used to be."

After a stretch where the Wildcats were continually letting teams back into games after taking large leads early on, Bonvicini seems to have finally addressed the problem.

Against ASU, the Wildcats were up 50-19 at halftime. When Arizona State began to make a run, Bonvicini took a quick 20-second timeout.

And what did she say to make the Wildcats regain their intensity and put ASU away for good?

"Just go play hard," she told her team. "Don't worry about anything."

"We tend to be lackadaisical in the second half and let teams back in," Barnes said. "But (Saturday), except for a few brief periods, we kept it up and played very well."

No. 8 Arizona vs. Oregon State

(16-5, 9-3 Pac-10) (6-16, 1-12)

When: Tonight at 7

Where: McKale Center

TV/Radio: The game will be broadcast live by KFFN (AM 1490)

Admission: Free for UA students with ID; $3 for UA faculty and staff, youth and senior citizens; $4 general admission. Note: Children under 18 will be admitted free tonight in honor of the national "Take a Kid to the Game" night.

What: The Wildcats have won five of their last six while Oregon State has lost nine in a row - Arizona beat the Beavers 84-58 at Oregon State Jan. 24 - UA senior forward Adia Barnes leads the Pac-10 in scoring at 22.2 points a game - Oregon State owns a 15-10 advantage in the all-time series, including winning four of the last seven - The Wildcats are first in the conference in steals, averaging 12.24 a game