It’s been a tough three weeks for the Arizona women’s basketball team, which hasn’t won a game since beating California on Jan. 22.
But all that matters is a chance to knock off an ASU (14-7, 6-5 Pacific 10 Conference) team on Sunday that handed the Arizona Wildcats a 75-43 loss in their first meeting this season.
“”It’s a big rematch game,”” said sophomore guard Davellyn Whyte, a Phoenix native. “”We want to take back what’s really ours. This is a chance to show the teams that we lost to that we were really supposed to win the first time.””
Even though Arizona is in the midst of a four-game losing streak, the Wildcats (13-9, 4-7) are looking at this weekend’s game as an opportunity to show that they didn’t play near their ability in the season’s first matchup.
“”I feel like we’ve been working hard on every little thing we need to clean up,”” said guard Shanita Arnold, who scored only two points while committing nine turnovers in the earlier meeting. “”We know what ASU is going to do … and we know what we need to fix. Now we’ve got to put it together.””
Arizona has found a way to eliminate big, game-changing mistakes this season, but the little mistakes that the Wildcats have been making have added up during four straight losses.
“”We’ve really been focusing on that this week, since we had the whole week to prepare,”” Arnold said. “”We’ve just been really focused on what we need to fix.””
Whyte said she has a little more motivation to beat ASU in attempts to get Arizona back on track after a rocky month.
“”The rivalry with Arizona and ASU is big, but because I’m from there and didn’t go to (ASU), it’s kind of a lot to balance,”” Whyte said.
Whyte played with ASU standout guard Dymond Simon at St. Mary’s high school in Phoenix, but she said that the two don’t talk trash outside of the occasional text message before a game.
“”When we’re on the court, we don’t really say much until after the game,”” said Whyte, who scored a team-high 13 points against the Sun Devils earlier this season.
After Sunday’s game, the Wildcats will wrap up the season playing four of six games on the road before the Pac-10 Tournament starts on March 9.