UW 64, UA 60
Despite a big second-half run, the Arizona women's basketball team couldn't catch up in its final home game of the regular season Saturday, as the Wildcats fell to Washington 64-60 in McKale Center in front of 4,350 fans.
Arizona (19-10, 11-7 Pacific 10 Conference) takes the fifth seed in the conference and plays fourth-seeded Southern California in the Pac-10 Tournament Saturday in San Jose, Calif.
Arizona's three seniors scored first on senior day, as forward Danielle Adefeso netted a jumper to score the team's first points.
Point guard Dee-Dee Wheeler contributed her own jumper, and guard Katrina Lindner drained a trey to cut the Huskies' lead to two, 9-7.
Freshman guard Jessica Arnold hit a 3-pointer to knot the game at 21 with more than eight minutes remaining in the first half.
Arnold later sank a pair of free throws to give Arizona a three-point lead, 28-25. The Wildcats went into halftime up 28-26.
Wheeler injured her right ankle with 15:59 in the second half after attempting a layup off a steal by junior center Shawntinice Polk.
"I'm OK," Wheeler said. "When Polkey threw me the pass, I went up and I came down, and they didn't let me come down. I landed on one of the player's foot, so my ankle gets twisted.
"It's going to be sore probably tonight and tomorrow when I take the tape off, but right now it's fine," she said.
The senior captain came back into the game at 12:56 and ignited a 15-0 Arizona run to go up 55-40.
Wheeler finished the night with 19 points, seven steals, five assists and five rebounds.
"It's a very disappointing loss," said Arizona head coach Joan Bonvicini. "It was back and forth for a good part of the game and then we really broke it open big."
The Huskies (13-15, 9-9) responded with their own 19-0 scoring drive to make it 59-55.
Guard Kayla Burt led Washington, tallying 17 of her 23 points in the second half.
"(Burt has) been playing ball since she was really, really young," Wheeler said. "She's a great shooter, a left-handed shooter, just like Salim (Stoudamire). The lefties can shoot. She got hot. We had to get out there. We didn't adjust and she made us pay."
The Arizona coaching staff said it credits Burt and the Wildcats' defense for the Huskies' offensive drive.
"They came back and hit a couple of shots on us and they got some confidence, and we switched back to a man (defense) because Burt was really hot. And they still hit some shots," Bonvicini said.
"When we subbed, we lost the lead," she said. "The subs didn't hold the lead down, the intensity wasn't enough."
Natalie Jones made one of two shots from the charity stripe, and Wheeler added a layup to bring the Wildcats within one point at 1:20, but Arizona did not get any closer than that.
The Huskies went 5-6 from the free-throw line the remainder of the half, sealing the win.
"Both teams fought to the end, but it was one of those games where we just couldn't pull ahead," Polk said. "We knew coming in they were a good 3-point shooting team."
The Huskies shot 41.7 percent from 3-point range to the Wildcats' 14.3 percent.
"Rebounding was a big issue. Particularly, our guards didn't go to (the) boards," Bonvicini said. "And then we were allowing some second shots on the other end for them."
Polk scored 14 points and brought down 11 rebounds for her ninth double-double of the season, along with four steals and two blocked shots.
Adefeso contributed nine points and seven rebounds.
The Wildcats and the Trojans (17-10, 11-7) meet Saturday at 7:15 p.m. in HP Pavilion.