After a dominant home win against Oregon, the UA women’s basketball team heads to Los Angeles to clash with UCLA tonight at 6 p.m. local time and USC on Saturday afternoon.

The Wildcats hope to draw on the performance in which they defeated the Ducks 68-44 in a game where their defensive authority gave way to an offensive show.

“”Whenever you have a good defensive stop, you feel like you have to go (on offense),”” said forward Amina Njonkou. “”We were doing something good as a team on defense and every one was ready to go.””

Arizona (9-13, 2-9 Pacific-10 conference) had a scare near the end of their game against Oregon, though. Sophomore forward Ify Ibekwe went down late in the second half with an ankle sprain. She did not return, but is expected to be ready to go against UCLA.

Ibekwe will once again face off against her older sister Chinyere, who is a senior at UCLA. This is the third meeting between the sisters. Despite putting up 14 points in their first meeting of the year, Ify has yet to record a win over her sister’s squad.

UCLA (14-7, 5-5) looks to turn around its record after losing three straight games. They have fallen to fifth place in the Pac-10 after losing to USC 87-76. The Bruins offense is a whole team effort as only Doreena Campbell averages in double figures. The rest of the UCLA’s offense comes from eight other players who average between 7.9 and 5 points per game.

In the first meeting this year, UCLA handed the UA an embarrassing home-loss – Arizona only scored 38 points. The Bruins’ defense held Arizona to a shooting percentage of just 8.7 percent in the second half. With the emergence of a bigger lineup and a more powerful offense however, Arizona hopes to build a winning streak for the second time this season.

“”We’re going to look for us to carry this over to next week,”” said UA head coach Niya Butts.

The Wildcats will once again change up the lineup to play to their strengths. Against Oregon, senior Njonkou came off the bench and racked up 16 points, nine rebounds and two steals.

“”She’s not going to start the next game either,”” Butts said. “”Anytime we can get production like this, we’re going to bring her off the bench.””

The Wildcats will have to work hard on the boards against UCLA, the best rebounding team in the Pac-10 with a +9.5 margin per game. Ify Ibekwe leads the Pac-10 in rebounding with 11.3 per game, and will look to give Arizona second chance points in the paint.