The Arizona women's basketball team may have lost a step when it fell to the Oregon Ducks last Saturday, but with the conference race heading to its halfway point, the Wildcats still have a chance to break from the pack and overtake the Washington Huskies for second place.

Arizona (13-3 overall, 4-3 in the Pacific 10 Conference) will be looking up in the standings when they travel to Seattle today, which for this season's team is exactly what they need to motivate themselves. The Wildcats are hoping to end their yo-yo rhythm of beating the teams they are supposed to lose to, and losing to those they are supposed to beat.

In Arizona's previous four games, they have defeated a Southern Cal team they hadn't beaten in five years, lost to a UCLA team they swept last season, beat 15th-ranked Oregon State, then lost to an Oregon team that is 2-4 in the Pac-10.

"We have a good overall record, but like I've said all along, this is conference play now and we need to come to play every night," Arizona head coach Joan Bonvicini said. "Stanford is standing alone at the top and the rest of us are beating the heck out of each other. Every game is a dogfight."

Tonight's dogfight will be against a Husky team that scores in many different ways. Led by freshman guard Jamie Redd's 15.2 points per game and junior forward Laura Savasta's 13.3 points per game, Washington (11-7, 5-2) can strike from both inside and outside. They are also the Pac-10's leading rebounding team.

"Washington is a team that, in the past, was primarily an interior team. This season they have added a dimension to their perimeter game and are much more dangerous," Bonvicini said.

The Huskies have dominated the series against Arizona, winning 18 of the 19 games the teams have played. The Wildcats have never won in Seattle. Last season Washington beat Arizona in two close games, 79-71 in Seattle and 71-68 in Tucson.

"Washington is a good, young team," Bonvicini said. "We had two close games last year and now we need to get over the hump and win those games."

"We're going up there looking for a sweep. We're not looking for anything less," Arizona senior guard Brenda Pantoja said. "We're playing well, our confidence is high. We've had a few distractions this week, but we're going to be all right. We have a lot of motivation our way right now."

The Wildcats will try to get their offense jump-started after a poor outing against the Ducks last Saturday. Arizona scored only 47 points and shot just 34 percent from the field. Sophomore forward Adia Barnes and seniors Pantoja and Andrea Constand will have to return to form in order to get a win. Barnes is averaging 18.1 points per game, Pantoja 14.4 and Constand 12.9.

The Wildcats lost a bit of defensive intensity in their 55-47 loss to Oregon, something the team will definitely try to rectify.

"Some of the players came to me before practice and said that they felt they lost their natural aggressiveness because of the defensive scheme. As a good coach I must listen to that and try to let them play to their talents," Bonvicini said.

As for winning for the first time in Washington, the players are ready.

"We will definitely be focused," Barnes said. "We have to be because people are going to be stepping up at their own places."