Two days after the Arizona women’s basketball team ended its six-game losing streak, it couldn’t start a winning one, losing to Washington 79-64.
The Wildcats (8-17, 2-11 Pacific 10 Conference) had a 43-point second-half but still were unable to catch up to the Huskies (14-10, 7-6), who scored 52 after halftime.
“”You’re never satisfied with a split,”” said UA head coach Joan Bonvicini, who earned career win No. 599 Thursday at Washington State. “”We’re happy we beat Washington State. The good thing is we did a pretty good job and are playing much better.””
Arizona struggled with consistency. In the first half, the Wildcats shot just 25.9 percent, but in the second half shot 55.6 percent, adding up to a 40.7-percent mark (22-of-54) for the game.
The Huskies shot 31-of-57 (54.4 percent) overall and out-rebounded the Wildcats 36-29.
“”Once they got running, they got confident,”” Bonvicini said. “”They are a team that’s very talented. It seemed like in the second half everything they were putting up was going in.””
Seattle native Joy Hollingsworth, a guard, scored a game-high 26 points in front of family and friends, and guard Ashley Whisonant added 17 points off the bench.
“”Joy’s been really solid,”” Bonvicini said. “”She’s worked really, proficiently hard, and it was nice to see Ashley Whisonant step up.””
Bonvicini said she was pleased with her guard play but disappointed with the post play, where Arizona had only 10 points.
“”Tonight was a night where we didn’t have a real good post game,”” Bonvicini said. “”We made a real good run early in the second half, but they got on a huge run.””
Forward Amina Njonkou, the Wildcats’ third-leading scorer, was scoreless in 15 minutes off the bench.
Arizona opened the second half with an 8-0 run to cut the deficit to 30-29.
The Huskies then blew the game wide open, countering with a 33-10 run over the next 10:12 and going up 63-39 with 6:35 left to play.
Arizona didn’t score for nearly five minutes to open a low-scoring first half.
“”I thought we came out strong in the first half,”” Hollingsworth said.
“”Our defense was solid, and we just tried to contain them, but in the second half they came out with a little run, and our defense kind of fell apart.””
It was an opposite of Thursday’s defensive struggle against Washington State, in which neither team had a big scoring run. Bonvicini said she has been very frustrated with the Wildcats’ offensive production, or lack thereof.
“”I think we’ve been working so hard on our defense that we forgot how to play on offense,”” Whisonant said.
Bonvincini tries for win No. 600 in home games against Oregon State (8-12, 3-8) and Oregon (12-9, 4-7) this week.
“”We would have liked a sweep, but we’re going to have to do that at home,”” Bonvicini said. “”The only good part, I’ll say, was we fought until the end.””
