CHRIS CODUTO/Arizona Daily Wildcat Freshman guard Jessica Arnold takes to the air for a layup during Arizona's 84-77 loss to No. 20 Maryland, Saturday in McKale Center.

MARYLAND 84, UA 77

Despite overcoming a 10-point halftime deficit, the UA women's basketball team ultimately fell short, losing 84-77 in overtime to No. 20 Maryland Saturday in McKale Center.

"As much as this hurts, when you play a game like this, you learn more from a loss," said UA head coach Joan Bonvicini. "We're never going to be in this situation again this year. It's (a loss) we're going to remember for a while."

The Wildcats trailed the Terrapins 40-30 going into halftime but used a 9-0 run when play resumed to cut the Maryland lead to one.

The Terrapins responded with their own 7-0 run to regain the lead, 47-39.

Later in the half, freshman guard Jessica Arnold swiped a steal off Maryland's Anesia Smith and hit a jumper to draw Arizona within two points, 49-47.

Both teams exchanged baskets for the remainder of the half before junior guard Natalie Jones nailed a 3-pointer with 3.2 seconds left in the half. Jones followed her trey with a free throw to cut the Maryland lead to one.

In Arizona's next possession, Jones drained another shot from downtown to give Arizona a two-point lead, 69-67.

"I can't really explain (those two shots)," Jones said. "The ball came and I just let it go. I really wasn't looking to shoot a lot during the duration of the game. I really wanted to get it in to Polkey and the other posts. When it came to that, I just had to let it go. I'm glad those two went in."

Senior point guard Dee-Dee Wheeler then deflected the ball on two straight Maryland inbounds passes with eight seconds remaining, but the Terrapins' Jade Perry hit a jumper just as time expired to force overtime.

"We were trying to put pressure on

the ball," said Bonvicini of the last play of the second half. "Chari (Smith) was running the baseline. I should have made a change when they went under the basket. That's my fault. I'm mad at myself. I should have (senior forward) Danielle (Adefeso) down there, with more experience."

"We all thought we had it," said Arnold, who recorded 18 points. "It's just one of those things. The ball was bouncing around (and Perry) picked it up and it went off the glass and we're just like 'Oh, no.'"

Arizona scored the first three points in overtime to give the Wildcats a 72-69 lead. The game was knotted at 75 before Maryland outscored 9-2 for the remainder of the game.

"I think we got better today, we grew up a lot today," Bonvicini said. "A lot of kids stepped up. I thought Polkey really dominated at times - we still could have got her more touches."

Polk led Arizona with 19 points, a team-high eight rebounds and four blocked shots. Jones, Adefeso and freshman guard Ashley Whisonant all finished with 11 points.

"We have a lot to work on," Polk said. "But we can learn from this loss. We have a lot of heart and we can fight to the end. Offensively, we need to execute better. We can hang with a lot more people. We haven't been giving ourselves enough credit."

The Wildcats' rebounding troubles continued, as the Terrapins brought down 50 boards to Arizona's 34.

"(Rebounding) really did hurt," Bonvicini said. "Part of it was when (you) took bad shots and then you don't know where the ball's going. That affects not only your shot selection, that affects your rebounds."

Arizona shot 64 percent from the free-throw line to the Terrapins' 80 percent.

Arizona now heads to Palo Alto, Calif., to take on No. 2 Stanford (18-2, 10-1 Pacific 10 Conference) Thursday at 8 p.m.