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Seniors highlight best season ever

Women's basketball team sets program mark for wins, places

Even though its roster didn't boast a single superstar and had only two players that averaged double-digit scoring, the UA women's basketball team was arguably the best squad in school history.

After returning 10 letterwinners, including all five starters, the Wildcats advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament and finished with a 25-7 mark, a new school record.

To UA associate head coach Denise Dove-Ianello, the season was "magical" and her players performed "magnificently," yet her declarations don't sound too farfetched.

Only one other Arizona team has advanced further in the postseason tournament (Sweet Sixteen in 1998), and no other group of Wildcats has ever collected more wins.

"This season was very successful and so much fun to coach," Dove-Ianello said. "The chemistry between all the players was outstanding, which was definitely reflected in our record. This may just go down as one of the best seasons for women's basketball at the U of A."

The eighth-seeded UA women's basketball team was knocked out of the NCAA tournament by top-seeded Tennessee 75-60 in a game that carried the subplot of "swan-song" for five seniors.

"Through the year, we relied upon our seniors, Tatum (Brown), Angie (Lackey) Felecity (Willis), Lisa (Griffith) and Monika (Crank)," Dove-Ianello added. "The distribution of their leadership was fantastic, and without them, I doubt that we would have accomplished nearly as much as we did."

Brown said the emotion of the Tennessee game being perhaps her final game motivated her even more than the idea that she was facing the Goliath of women's basketball.

"The adrenaline was going, it was just flying out my ears because it could have been and is my last game," she said. "All the seniors were really excited just being here. It is emotional - last game, last time together."

Arizona's offense came in spurts throughout the night, however. In the second half, the Volunteers built several leads of more than 20 points that Arizona persistently would cut to 12.

"We just had trouble until our backs were against the wall, and we started battling, then, we did a pretty decent job," UA head coach Joan Bonvicini said.

"The second half was tough, we had a lot of fouls called, but we still battled," she added. "I am proud of our players for how hard they played and how hard our bench played. Tennessee is just tough."

Arizona gained a second round matchup against the eventual national runners-up by defeating Kent 73-61 in the first round and was granted admission into tournament by finishing second in the Pacific 10 Conference.

Throughout the conference season, the Wildcats were in contention for the title but lost out on their chance of capturing their first league title when the Oregon Ducks dissolved a 22-point second-half UA lead to win the game on March 4 at McKale Center.

The Wildcats rebounded the following weekend by defeating Stanford and California in the Bay Area and securing a second place spot in the Pac-10.

"The conference season was really exciting, even though we did not win the Pac-10 title," Dove-Ianello said earlier this year. "The players battled through many of the games, and the fact that we stayed in contention through the whole season says a lot about our team."

Beginning the season at No. 25 in the nation, the Wildcats impressed critics by winning their first nine games and capturing the titles of all three preseason tournaments they entered.

Arizona, champions of the Hawaiian Regent Wahine Tournament, the Seelbach Cardinal Classic and the Insight.Com Bowl Classic, lost its first game to then-No. 23 Kansas 71-68.

"There are just so many things that this team has to be proud of," Willis said. "The wins, the NCAA tournament, the winning streak, the tournament titles, all of them put together just shows how admirable a season we had. It was the most enjoyable too. Everyone got along, and we maintained an up-tempo team mentality throughout the season."

Keith Carmona can be reached at sports@wildcat.arizona.edu.