Arizona Daily Wildcat
Friday, January 27, 2006
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Down by eight at the half, all looked lost for the Arizona women's basketball team.
About three minutes into the second stanza, sophomore forward Ché Oh, playing in her first game back since suffering a concussion against Stanford last week, hit a jumper to cut the Husky lead to two points at 44-42.
Unfortunately for the Wildcats (7-13, 3-7 Pacific 10 Conference), Oh's basket would be the last one they would score for the next 3:48, as the Huskies (14-4, 7-2) used a 16-0 run to ensure all was in fact lost for Arizona, downing the Wildcats 91-73 in Seattle.
Washington used a season-high 19-point performance from senior guard Kristen O'Neill and a career-high 16 points from junior guard Cheri Craddock in steamrolling the Wildcats, who had won two of their last three.
Though four starters were in double figures for Arizona, they scored only 17 points off the bench, in stark comparison to the Huskies, whose bench (49 points) actually outscored its starters (42 points).
Sophomore guard Ashley Whisonant led Arizona with 14 points, and fellow backcourt-mate Jessica Arnold, also a sophomore, continued her resurgence, pouring in 13 points.
During practice earlier this week, Bonvicini said that her team needed to focus on rebounding.
"Even though we're not that tall," she said at the time, "we can still box out a whole lot better."
The lack of height came back to bite the Wildcats - as has been the case all season - and they were unable to follow through on their coach's request, as they failed to pull down an offensive board the entire first half and were badly out-rebounded 39-20 for the game.
Freshman forward Amina Njonkou, one player expected to fill the rebounding gap, missed her second straight game after hurting her foot in an 82-51 loss to Stanford.
Despite the fact that Wildcats continued their hot shooting, making 50 percent of their shots from the field and 9-of-21 from 3-point distance, they couldn't overcome their 19 turnovers. The Huskies turned those turnovers into 23 points.
Up next for Arizona is the Pac-10 cellar-dwelling Washington State Cougars, who fell 75-65 last night to No. 15 ASU at home.
The Cougars, who have yet to win a conference game at 0-10, sport a 6-13 record on the season, and enter the game on a 12-game losing streak.
In the only previous meeting between the schools this season, junior guard Joy Hollingsworth scored 18 points for the Wildcats, and Whisonant added 17 more as the Wildcats cruised to a 61-52 win in Tucson.
Arizona and its four players who call Washington state home - Hollingsworth, Oh, and freshmen guards Malia O'Neal and Kelsey Burns - will tip at 3 p.m. Arizona time in Pullman, Wash.
Information was taken from www.collegesports.com.