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The Daily Wildcat

The Daily Wildcat

 

Women’s basketball loses pair of weekend games

Arizona women’s basketball lost both of its games this weekend as it traveled to take on Utah and Colorado. The road sweep moves the Wildcats to 8-13 on the season and 1-9 in Pac-12 Conference play.

Despite shooting a season-high 90 percent from the free-throw line, Arizona fell 62-48 to Utah Friday night in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The Utes were previously winless against Pac-12 opponents heading into the matchup.

Arizona point guard Candice Warthen became the program’s 18th 1,000-point scorer, but the Wildcats as a team could not produce enough scoring to keep pace with the Utes. Keyahndra Cannon led the UA with a career-high 14 points coming off of 5-7 field goal attempts. She also recorded a team- and career-high six rebounds in the defeat.

Off the bench, Charise Holloway and LaBrittney Jones both added in eight points. Arizona’s bench out-scored Utah’s 30-0.

However, the Utes saw four starters score in double-figures, led by 16 points each from Taryn Wicijowski and Tanaeya Boclair.

As a team, Utah out-shot Arizona 51 to 28 percent and out-rebounded the Wildcats 40-27. The UA did win the turnover battle by committing only nine miscues compared to 16 by the Utes.

The Wildcats trailed 29-20 at the start of the second half and kept the game close for the remainder. In the closing minutes, they just couldn’t knock down enough field goals to stay in striking distance.

On Sunday afternoon, it was a similar story as Arizona lost to Colorado 81-69 in Boulder, Colo.

This time, Malena Washington led the Wildcats with a team-high 16 points off six made field goals, including perfect 4-4 from the free-throw line. Jones pitched in 14 points and a team-high eight rebounds off the bench.

Meanwhile, Warthen continued her climb up the UA career scoring chart, adding in 13 points behind nine made free throws.

Collectively, Arizona shot better from the field against Colorado, making 39 percent of its attempts, including a pair of 3-pointers. 

The Wildcats also played another clean game by committing just seven turnovers.

Nonetheless, the Buffs managed to pull away by shooting 45 percent from the field. Colorado guard Lexy Kresl scored a game-high 20 points thanks to four made 3-pointers.

Arizona could not compete with Colorado on the boards, losing the rebounding battle 45-31. The advantage allowed the Buffs to score 12 points off second-chance opportunities.

The Wildcats still managed to hold their own through most of the second half. With under two minutes to go, Colorado’s lead was down to just five points.

As the game winded down, the Buffs made nearly all of their free throws, while the UA was unable to convert on ensuing possessions.

With 41 seconds remaining, two Colorado free throws sealed the game for good by pushing the lead up to nine points. The Buffs made three more from the charity stripe to push the margin to 12 in the closing seconds.

All eight of Arizona’s conference losses have now come by double-digits.The Wildcats now return to Tucson to take on California and Stanford this weekend.

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Follow Ezra Amacher on Twitter.

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