University of Washington
Arizona
Huskies Drop Heartbreaker In Arizona, 61-58
January 20, 2011 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 20, 2011
TUCSON, Ariz. - Life on the road in the Pac-10 usually offers visiting teams little favors. This is what the Huskies are learning as the first half of conference seasons begins to wane.
Turnovers, missed shots and dubious foul calls were the story at the McKale Center on Thursday night, where the Huskies suffered a heartbreaking 61-58 loss to Arizona. It was the Huskies' third straight defeat at McKale.
Trailing by two with 25 seconds remaining, the Huskies had a chance to force overtime. But Regina Rogers, who led the team with 14 points, was called for a charge. After Arizona missed a pair of free throws to give UW new life, Kristi Kingma turned the ball over to all but seal the Huskies' defeat.
After the game, the message was simple: to win on the road in the Pac-10, the current crop needs to bring a more focused effort to the game.
"The game didn't come down (to fouls)," Kingma said. "We had multiple chances throughout the game to seal it or go ahead."
Arizona came into the game sporting one of the Pac-10's most explosive offenses. A dedication to transition defense, though, helped the Huskies contain the speedy Wildcats. Davellyn Whyte led UA with 15 points, but made just 4-of-13 shots in the process. As a team, Arizona shot just 37 percent from the field, compared to 48 percent for the Huskies.
There were several additional positives on the Washington front. The Huskies out-rebounded the Wildcats, 37-30. The post play was excellent as well, with Rogers teaming with Heard (10 points and six boards) to form an effective duo on the front line. This offset a tough night from Kingma, who finished with just seven points as she had the full attention of the Arizona defenders throughout the game.
For Kingma, this is typical as teams develop a more thorough scouting report on the junior. So she's comfortable deferring to teammates and using herself as decoy, which opened up the interior.
This was the strategy from the onset, when Washington opened the game on a 9-2 run, taking advantage of its size advantage in the post. The Wildcats whittled the lead down once their fast-break offense began to take shape, and the turnovers for the Huskies piled up. Overall, UW finished with 23 turnovers.
The Huskies will hope to split on the road trip on Saturday in Tempe, when they'll take on a similarly frustrated Arizona State team at Wells Fargo Arena. Tip-off is set for 3 p.m. (PST).
