The pregame hype billed yesterday's Arizona women's basketball game against Weber State as a battle of Wildcats.

Midway through the first quarter it became obvious that one was a cat, the other, merely a kitten.

Arizona bared its claws and ran its record to 4-0 with a 92-46 thrashing of Weber State (2-2) in front of 712 at McKale Center. It was Arizona's second straight blowout victory at home, and left one big question when the game was over.

How good is this team?

"I don't know, I think we're pretty good," Arizona head coach Joan Bonvicini said. "One of the things that's going to keep us in every game is our defense. We are real, real good defensively."

"It's hard to tell right now how good we are," sophomore forward Adia Barnes said. "On film, Weber State looked like a good team, we just outplayed them. It's important for us to concentrate on ourselves, not other teams. We just have to work hard and not become cocky. If you're cocky you get beat."

Arizona may have had reason to be cocky. The Wildcats jumped out to an early 12-2 lead and continued to gain momentum as the game wore on. Arizona dictated the tempo, dominated the boards, hit its outside shots, hit its inside shots and simply physically outmatched Weber State. Arizona led 46-15 at halftime.

"We came out and jumped on them early," Barnes said. "That was something we hadn't been doing and was important for us to do."

Arizona had five players score in double figures. Senior point guard Brenda Pantoja again led the team with 21 points and 10 assists. Barnes scored 15 points, senior forward Angela Constand and sophomore guard DeAngela Minter scored 12 and sophomore Marte Alexander had 11. The balanced attack is something Bonvicini said she looks for every game.

"I think we are getting a good contribution from everybody, from our starters to our bench people," Bonvicini said. "I'm proud because this team is very unselfish."

Arizona's unselfish play shredded Weber State's defense. The Wildcats used their quickness much more than in previous games as Pantoja and Minter drove to the basket and either passed to an open inside player or scored a layup. Yet, Bonvicini was quick to say it was defense that keyed her team.

"I am really pleased with our tenaciousness, especially defensively," Bonvicini said. "We made them work for everything. People are going to get their points at times, but if you can make them work and shoot a poor percentage, you're going to be in every ballgame."

Weber State was blanketed by Arizona's defense. Its 31.4 percent shooting in the second half was actually an improvement over the first half, in which is shot 22.2 percent. Weber State finished the game 17 for 62 from the field for 27.4 percent. Rachelle Gardner led Weber State with 14 points. Weber State's big inside scorer, Mika Brown, finished with only 10 points € nine of those coming in the second half.

Weber State started the second half feeding the ball into Brown, but it was too little too late. Arizona put the clamps on defensively, forcing 29 turnovers, including 18 steals, and basically ran circles around Weber State. Arizona kept its defensive intensity throughout the second half and cruised to victory.

"Our defense is just there," Alexander said. "It's just working and it is something we are concentrating on. We start off getting in their shorts. The defense is opening up a lot of things for us, especially our transition and running games. It makes things a lot easier for us."

Arizona will play Southern Utah at 7 p.m. at McKale Center Wednesday.