Arizona women’s basketball could not keep up the momentum after upsetting ASU last week and suffered two losses in the Bay Area.
On Sunday, the Wildcats (5-20, 1-13, Pac-12 Conference) lost to No. 6 Stanford (24-2, 13-1, Pac-12) 74-48.
Arizona was short-handed from the start, as the squad was without senior starting guard Carissa Crutchfield, who went down with an ankle injury in the closing seconds of the 65-49 loss to No. 22 Cal (17-7, 9-4, Pac–12) on Friday. That left the UA with only six players.
“Stanford had a good game plan by knocking down shots and taking care of business with a home win,” Arizona head coach Niya Butts said of the Cardinal, who shot 48.3 percent for the game.
Despite the depleted roster, Arizona held Stanford’s shooters in check and took an 11-8 lead after senior guard Kama Griffitts, who finished with eight points and four rebounds and hit a jumper with 14:54 remaining in the half.
“We were actually playing a little too fast early,” Butts said. “We actually didn’t want to play that fast. We really don’t have enough bodies to hold up and run that high-pace offense.”
The defense broke down for the last 12 minutes of the half and allowed Stanford to get comfortable from beyond the arc.
Chiney Ogwumike finished the game with 15 points and nine rebounds, and led Stanford, which put the game away early by going on a 40–8 run to finish the half.
Butts said Arizona let the Cardinal take too many jump shots.
“As great as [Stanford’s shooters are], I do not think they are good shooting off the dribble,” Butts said.
Stanford made 51.4 percent of its field goals, including 10-17 from 3-point land in the first half.
Arizona only shot 25 percent and made no 3-pointers.
The game was well out of reach in the second half as Stanford put in all its reserves in.
Freshman forward LaBrittney Jones and junior guard Candice Warthen had 11 and nine points for Arizona, respectively.
Bonnie Samuelson finished with 17 points for Stanford.
In the game at Cal on Friday night, the Golden Bears and the Wildcats went on 7-0 and 10-0 runs to start the game.
But after the score was tied at 10 with 13:28 remaining the first half, Brittany Boyd and Reshanda Gray took over for Cal. The two finished with seven and 16 points for the game, respectively.
The duo would combine to score 17 points in the half to help lead the Bears to a 29-14 run and a 39-24 halftime lead.
The Bears ran a 2-2-1 full court zone defense, which led to nine first-half turnovers for Arizona. Cal would score 12 points off of Arizona turnovers.
Cal opened up the second half with a 15-8 run and took a 54-32 lead with 14:41 remaining.
Seconds later, Boyd went out with an ankle injury, and four minutes after that, Gray got into foul trouble and left the game.
Arizona could not take advantage of the two losses, however.
Freshman forward Breanna Workman, sophomore guard Keyahndra Cannon and senior forward Erica Barnes each chipped in 10 points for Arizona. Barnes had a career high with four blocks as well.
The Wildcats will host Utah Friday night.
“We just got to keep working hard and go back to the drawing board,” Butts said, “as we got an opportunity at home.”
—Follow Tyler Keckeisen @tyler_keckeisen
