Down 28 at halftime, the Arizona women’s basketball team was unable to mount a comeback and fell to Washington 77-48 in Seattle on Thursday.
UA dropped to 13-7 overall and 2-6 in Pac-12 play, while Washington advanced to 11-7 overall and 3-5 in conference action.
Senior guard Shanita Arnold led the Wildcats with 11 points, nine
rebounds, two assists and one steal in 27 minutes of play. Junior guard
Davellyn Whyte was the only other UA player in double figures with 10
points. She also had six rebounds, three assists and two steals in 33
minutes of play.
“Washington played a great game,” head coach Niya Butts said. “They were shooting the ball really well for the first 15 minutes or so. I think they took our confidence away when they started knocking down shots. We couldn’t get anything going offensively, we didn’t execute well and we had 23 turnovers. I’m not sure what we had going on tonight, but it certainly isn’t the way we want to play basketball. We need to find a way to bounce back for our game on Saturday.”
The Wildcats shot 30.5 percent from the field (18 for 59), 21.7 percent from behind the arc (5 for 23) and 53.8 percent from the charity stripe (7 for 13). Arizona gave up a season-high 23 turnovers, leading to 28 points for Washington. UA did win the battle on the boards, pulling down 43 rebounds, including 17 on the offensive end that led to 15 second-chance points. UW had just nine turnovers, with seven coming in the final 20 minutes when the game had already been decided.
Arizona’s starting five included sophomore forward Erica Barnes, freshman center Aley Rohde, senior guard Reiko Thomas, sophomore guard Candice Warthen and Whyte. Arnold had the most minutes off the bench with 27.
For Washington, Jazmine Perkins was the leading scorer with 28 points and was one of four Huskies to score in double figures. The Huskies shot 45.3 percent from the field (29 or 64), 31.6 percent from 3-point range (6 for 19) and 72.2 percent from the free-throw line (13 for 18).
