The Arizona women’s basketball team’s season came to an end March 13 in Los Angeles as it was knocked out of the Pacific 10 Conference Tournament by the Stanford Cardinal with a 77-46 loss.

The Wildcats started the tournament as the No. 9 seed and played against a team which had the exact same record: Washington State.

As in past years, the Wildcats won their first-round game, defeating the Cougars 79-72, and then met first-seeded Stanford in the second round. And again, Stanford sent Arizona tumbling out of the Pac-10 Tournament.

Stanford took the lead early in the second-round matchup against the Wildcats, opening up a 12-3 lead six minutes into the first half.

“”They knocked down shots no matter what defense we were in all night,”” said UA head coach Niya Butts. “”When you allow 17 offensive rebounds and let them shoot at that high of a percentage, it’s going to be tough to get a win.””

Arizona’s defense failed to suppress the Cardinal offense throughout the rest of the first half. Stanford added a 12-0 run as the first half came to an end.

Arizona’s offense was stifled by its inability to get the ball to the post players. This forced the Wildcats to rely on their shooting guards to get the job done. Arizona only shot 32.1 percent from the field, a meager offensive showing from the Wildcats. Only two Wildcats, freshman Courtney Clements and junior Ashley Frazier, scored in double figures.

“”When we got the ball in the post, they doubled down and came over with the trap,”” Butts said. “”It took us too long in setting up our offense and getting into our sets.””

Arizona’s leading scorer Ify Ibekwe was unable to convert for the Wildcats, and only scored five points after being limited by foul trouble throughout the game. She only saw 29 minutes in the game.

All three Wildcat seniors saw action. In their final game of their college careers, Amina Njonkou scored two points while Beatrice Bofia added four. Sarah Hays started the game but did not score.

The Wildcats attempted to switch up their defense throughout the game keep the Cardinal on their toes. Unfortunately for the UA, whatever defense Arizona brought to the court, Stanford had an answer for.

“”We went man-to-man and they got lay-ups out of it. Tonight, we couldn’t stop them in either defense,”” Butts said.

The Cardinal had foul players in double figures, and received contributions from the bench. They shot 48 percent from the field for the game in the win over Arizona.

“”When a team is shooting that well, it can get hard to get past it. We have been in games where that has happened before and we came back,”” Clements said. “”I thought (against Stanford) we beat ourselves a lot more.””