Women's hoops looks to even out Pac-10 record

Nicholas Valenzuela Arizona Daily Wildcat Junior guard Felecity Willis (23) beats a Louisiana Tech defender during the Insight.Com Women's Classic at McKale Center in December. The 7-7 Wildcats will face off against the No. 25-ranked Oregon Ducks tonight at McKale Center.

The Wildcats enter the game 7-7 overall and will try to match their wins and losses tonight, which stand at 2-3 in the Pacific 10 Conference, after an impressive 70-61 win against Arizona State Saturday.

To prepare for the No. 25-ranked Ducks (14-3, 5-1), the Wildcats have devoted this week's practice to their defensive game. Last year, UA defeated Oregon 68-48.

"I've been working on defense," junior forward Angela Lackey said. "We need to contain the big girls. The offensive side is going to come off, but it's the defense we want to stay focused on."

The Ducks are coming off victories at home against Washington and Washington State. They have only lost one game, to No. 10 UCLA earlier this month, out of their last 10.

The Wildcats will have a handful of players to watch on the Ducks' offensive side of the court with seven Oregon players posting better than seven points per game. Sophomore forward Brianne Meharry leads the Ducks with 10.4 points per game.

"We've got to do good on the defensive side," UA head coach Joan Bonvicini said. "We have to make more transitions and be quick on them."

The Wildcats will look to start the same team that put out the Sun Devil fire in the last game. And the team is hopeful that junior forward Tatum Brown will be back on the court tonight, after a leave of absence due to academic concerns. The team would not confirm Brown's exact status yesterday.

The games this weekend will also mark a special note of importance to two UA players, junior guard Lisa Griffith and freshman center Michelle Mitchell, who are from Portland and Oregon City, Ore., respectively.

Griffith is averaging 8.3 points per game and a team-high 4.6 assists. Mitchell has 1.2 rebounds per game off the bench.

The Wildcats may have the scoring techniques down, but they are struggling a bit on the rebounding side in conference play. They have been out-rebounded by a 6.8 average.

"We need to be on the boards," Bonvicini said. "And we have to attack aggressively."

With two wins this weekend, Bonvicini could earn win number 450. She'll have the support of a 43-10 record at McKale Center the last four years.

Kate Longworth can be reached at Kate.Longworth@wildcat.arizona.edu.