JON HELGASON/Arizona Daily Wildcat Senior guard Julie Brase and the Wildcats take on the USC Trojans tonight at home.

The Wildcats women's basketball team will try to avoid losing back-to-back games for the first time all season when Southern California comes to McKale Center tonight at 7.

Arizona will try and shake off its most frustrating loss of the year when it fell 60-59 to Washington. The Wildcats (10-4, 4-2) were unable to overcome a couple critical mistakes and missed free throws late in the contest, which set up a last second tip to give the Huskies the win.

Not only did the loss drop Arizona to fourth, behind UCLA (5-0), Stanford (4-0) and Washington (4-1), in the Pacific-10 Conference standing, but also dropped the Wildcats to No. 22 in the latest Associated Press Poll.

Tonight's match up with USC (6-10, 1-4) will be a pivotal game in the Wildcats' conference season and also the development and maturation of the relatively young Wildcat squad. Getting back on track quickly is something Arizona is banking on.

"We're over (the loss)," said freshman center Shawtinice Polk. "We have to move and can't let (the Washington loss) get us down for the next game."

"We have a team of competitors and I know they will come back and play well (tonight)," said assistant coach Denise Dove Ianello.

The Wildcats return home tonight after splitting games at Washington and Washington State, and the team realizes the importance of winning the games at home.

Ianello added that it is imperative for all teams to protect their home floors. Both players and coaches feel that in order to contend for the conference title, they must win their home games.

"It's the number one key to doing well in the Pac-10. You have to protect your home court," said Dove Ianello.

"We have two very good teams coming into town and we can't take either of those teams for granted, plus we want to win all of our games at home," said sophomore guard Dee Dee Wheeler.

Another thing that the team has been emphasizing all week in practice was team defense. USC comes into tonight's game averaging just under 65 points a contest and the team's ability to play tough one-on-one defense against the Trojans will play a large role in the game's outcome.

"Our contain defense will be key," Wheeler said "(USC) has great penetrators and we need to work hard on containing them."

USC is led by junior guard Aisha Hollans. Hollans led the Women of Troy in scoring with 17.6 points per game and also added 6.2 rebounds from the point guard spot. The play of Hollans is important to USC's success.

Some good news for the Wildcats is that USC has been struggling of late. The team has lost three games in a row and eight of its last 10 contests. However, the Trojans return to Arizona where they have had great success against the Wildcats in the past. USC holds an all-time series lead over UA with a record of 36-12, including a 16-7 mark at McKale Center.