Citizen Staff Report
Citizen Staff Report
The University of Arizona women’s basketball team is playing some of its best ball of the year heading into the Pac-10 Tournament.
The Wildcats fell just 51-48 at No. 9 California on Saturday, two days after losing 70-67 at No. 2 Stanford.
UA (11-18, 4-14) will be the No. 9 seed at the Pac-10 Tournament, and play No. 8 seed Washington State at 8:15 p.m. Thursday.
The winner of that game faces No. 1 seed Stanford on Friday.
WSU (11-18, 4-14) swept Arizona this year, winning 68-58 in Pullman, Wash., and 63-56 in Tucson.
Ify Ibekwe scored a game-high 21 points and grabbed 13 rebounds in UA’s loss at Cal.
The Wildcats shot just 35.6 percent overall, but held the Bears to 35.2 percent shooting.
UA led 23-20 at halftime and was up 26-20 early in the second half before Cal went on a 24-4 run to go up 44-30.
Arizona went on a 9-0 run to make it 44-39, and later cut the lead to 50-48 with 52 seconds left on a layup by Reiko Thomas.
But UA couldn’t score again in falling to Cal for the second time this year.
Devanei Hampton and Natasha Vital each scored 12 to lead the Bears.
PAC-10 WOMEN
School Conf. Overall
Stanford 17-1 26-4
California 15-3 24-5
Arizona State 15-3 23-7
UCLA 9-9 18-11
Oregon State 9-9 19-10
USC 9-9 15-14
Oregon 5-13 9-20
Washington State 4-14 11-18
Arizona 4-14 11-18
Washington 3-15 7-21
PAC-10 TOURNAMENT
Thursday
Game 1 – No. 7 Oregon vs. No. 10 Washington, 6 p.m.; Game 2 – No. 8 Washington State vs. No. 9 Arizona, 8:15 p.m.
Friday
Game 3 – No. 3 Arizona State vs. No. 6 USC, 11 a.m.; Game 4 – No. 2 California vs. Game 1 winner, 1:15 p.m.; Game 5 – No. 1 Stanford vs. Game 2 winner, 5 p.m.; Game 6 – No. 4 UCLA vs. No. 5 Oregon State, 7:15 p.m.
Saturday
Game 7 – Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 winner, 6 p.m.; Game 8 – Game 5 winner vs. Game 6 winner, 8:30 p.m.
Sunday
Game 9 – Game 7 winner vs. Game 8 winner, 6 p.m.