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Women's hoops squad to battle UCLA

UA women's basketball head coach Joan Bonvicini said she has had today's date circled on her calendar for quite some time.

Tonight, her No. 14 Wildcats meet the No. 12 UCLA Bruins in a game that features the top two offensive producers in the Pacific 10 conference.

Last year, the Bruins were the only team to sweep Arizona in conference play and senior guard Lisa Griffith said she is ready for revenge.

"Our main focus right now, because we got swept by them last year, is to make sure that we don't let that happen again," she said. "There is certainly no lack of motivation for this game. We are excited about this game because it is going to be a test for us and we're ready to play another game."

Bonvicini added that this game will also provide the Wildcats with a chance to prove themselves to UCLA.

"I don't think that they respect us. I felt that after last year and we're going to play hard, we'll be ready," Bonvicini said.

Despite Arizona and UCLA averaging 83.9 points per game and 78.5 ppg, respectively, UA coaches and players agree that the key to victory this evening will be defense.

"We really want to come out and play some great defense, get some turnovers and set the tone that way, but hopefully it won't come down to the last shot," Griffith said. "Our only two losses, we have lost by three points, we don't like those. If we can, we'd like to get a big lead and keep it."

Griffith added that on offense, the Wildcats have so many weapons that no team can contain all players on the court at one time.

"It is more of picking your poison," Griffith said. "Are you going to try to stop us down low or stop our perimeter, you can't take both away." Griffith stated that the play of UA's post players has allowed her to become open for easy shots.

"If they try to take away our guard play, then our posts should be able to eat them alive," she added.

Bonvicini said there are three keys to victory for the Wildcats.

"We have got to play good defense," Bonvicini said. "They have a lot of good weapons and a lot of good players and it is not just their posts. We have to do a much better job of (rebounding) because they clearly out-rebounded us both games last year, but we are a much better rebounding team this year."

Bonvicini said the team also needs to run a flawless transition game on both offense and defense.

The key match-up that Bonvicini said she is excited to see is with Bruin senior forward Maylana Martin, who is a preseason All-American candidate and was named Pac-10 Player of the Year in 1998-99.

This season, Martin is averaging 17.1 ppg and 9 rebounds per game.

"It is going to take a lot of players (to defend Martin) in Tatum (Brown), Angie (Lackey), Liz (Pickney) and a lot of things," she said. "We are just going to have to go inside, outside."

Griffith realizes that while this is only the fifth conference contest for Arizona, it holds conference championship implications.

"We know that when it comes down to the end of the Pac-10's, these games here are the ones that will make the difference," Griffith said. "We are very excited about playing this game and know that it is critical in the Pac-10 race."