Arizona Daily Wildcat
The end is near for the Arizona women's basketball team.
With no chance of a winning record this season, the Wildcats (10-17, 5-10) must win their final three games to match last year's Pacific 10 Conference win total of eight, best in school history.
Arizona's first step to match the record will be to get through No. 17 Washington tonight at McKale Center. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m.
The Huskies (20-7, 10-4) are currently tied for second in the conference and were ranked as high as eighth in the nation earlier in the season.
This week's series, including Washington State on Saturday, marks the final home games for JiJi Sweet, the lone senior on the Arizona team. She has logged only four minutes in the last four games after spraining her left knee Feb. 15. She has since been fitted with a custom brace and her status remains questionable for Washington and Washington State.
"It's going to be a good series," freshman forward Mikko Giordano said before practice Tuesday. "Whichever team comes ready to play is the team that's going to win, and hopefully we can surprise these teams. But it should be a really good game.
"We're just playing to win. How these last two weeks end will dictate how our next year will be. Not necessarily saying if we win it's going to make it better, but if we just go out there and we work hard and everybody pulls together than they'll depict how next year we'll have a winning season."