CLAIRE C. LAURENCE/Arizona Daily Wildcat Head coach Joan Bonvicini said her star center, Shawtinice Polk (right), will need to stay out of foul trouble if the UA expects to win its second straight Fiesta Bowl Classic this weekend.

Women's hoops to face three-team field in weekend tourney

The UA women's basketball team looks to defend its title in its own tournament, the 13th annual Fiesta Bowl Women's Classic, in McKale Center this weekend.

The first challenge for the Wildcats (3-2) is American University at 3:30 p.m. tomorrow. The Eagles (2-1) started their season with home victories against UNC Asheville and Howard, along with a loss at Loyola.

American distributes the ball well, with six players averaging at least six points per game. Senior guard Chanel Springs, however, is the only player averaging in double digits, with 14.3 points per game.

Meanwhile, the Wildcats have three players who are averaging in double digits this season. Sophomore center Shawntinice Polk and junior guard Dee-Dee Wheeler lead the way so far, scoring 16.4 and 16.2 points per game, respectively. Senior guard Aimee Grzyb is putting up 11.4 points per game.

If the Wildcats can win against American, they would face the winner of tomorrow's 1 p.m. matchup between Utah State (0-2) and Massachusetts (2-4) in Sunday's championship game. At last year's Classic, the Wildcats pulled out a win in the championship game against Illinois, 75-73.

The Wildcats have not faced Utah State since 1986. The program disbanded after the 1986-87 season before starting back up again. The Aggies, however, still hold the edge in the overall series with Arizona, 7-4. The Aggies have lost to Southern Utah and Montana State so far this season.

Since Utah State is putting its first team on the court in 15 years, the team is extremely young, fielding nine freshmen, three sophomores and two juniors - a lineup that makes even the young Wildcats seem like a veteran squad.

Massachusetts also comes to Tucson for this weekend's tourney.

UMass suffered four straight losses to start the season but has since been on a two-game win streak with victories against Brown and Vermont.

UMass and the UA have never faced each other, but the teams are connected in another way. UA head Coach Joan Bonvicini and UMass head coach Marnie Dacko were college hoops teammates at Southern Connecticut State, while junior guard Dee-Dee Wheeler and UMass junior guard Monique Govan played together at Chicago's Dunbar Vocational Career Academy.

Although Wheeler and Govan will have to play on separate teams this time, the two are best friends and "the best 1-2 combo in the world," according to Wheeler.

A top priority for the Wildcats this weekend will be get Polk more playing time. She only played five minutes of the first half in the team's loss to Virginia due to three quick fouls in the first six minutes of the game. Despite seeing limited minutes in most of Arizona's games thus far, the 6-foot-5 center has still managed to lead the team in scoring.

Bonvicini says it's important for the team to have Polk out on the court.

"We definitely need to keep (Polk) in the game," Bonvicini said. "It definitely affects the team when she is not on the court. Half of the fouls were good calls, but the other half weren't. We definitely need her in the ball game."

Another improvement Bonvicini hopes her team makes is getting to the charity stripe more often. The team has made 57 of 85 in five games (67.1 percent). If Polk stays out of foul trouble, the free-throw attempts are sure to increase, according to Bonvicini.

"The disappointing thing is, we could have done a whole lot better," Bonvicini said of her team's performance last week, when the Wildcats went 2-2. "It's really important we come back now and play with pride. We need to get to the free-throw line and play better defense, but we're really close to being a very good team."