Wildcats drop third straight game in 74-62 loss to USC

Arizona women’s basketball (12-16, 4-13 Pac-12) couldn’t overcome a poor first half in a 74-62 home loss to Southern California on Friday night.

The Trojans (9-19, 6-11) went on a 17-1 run in the first half. Though Arizona outscored USC 36-35 in the second, it wasn’t enough, as the Wildcats lost their third in a row, 11th of the last 12 and sixth conference game at home.

“We came out the first half and didn’t do anything close to what we wanted to do, especially on defense,” head coach Niya Butts said. “That first half was a nightmare of a deal, but we came out in the second half and played much better. Ultimately, they made more plays than we did. We couldn’t close the deal.”

Arizona had two 8-0 runs and got to within one in the second half, 51-50, but USC pulled away in the last few minutes.

“We have found a way to lose a game in every way we possibly can and that’s very frustrating,” Butts said. “It’s one of those things where we make runs, but can’t finish the game. It’s a tough spot, but we’re not in the place we want to be. We know we can’t stay still, we have to keep going and keep working to get better. That’s what we’re going to do as both a team and staff. We have one more home game for our seniors on Sunday and we’re going to try and put them in a position to win.”

Junior forward Erica Barnes led the Wildcats with 15 points. Senior guard Davellyn Whyte and junior guard Carissa Crutchfield had 13 points and freshman guard Keyahndra Cannon scored 10.

It was a rare occasion where Arizona had four players in double figures in scoring.

“The more help you have, the easier it is,” Crutchfield said. “Having everyone shooting and being aggressive is a great thing.”

The Wildcats wrap up the regular season by hosting No. 16 UCLA on senior day at 1 p.m. on Sunday. The game will be shown on pac-12.com.

“It’s tough, but we can’t dwell on this because we play UCLA on Sunday,” Barnes said. “We have to prepare and be ready.”

Crutchfield also said they need to move on.

“We can take what we learn from this game and push it over to the next one,” Crutchfield said.

Whyte had nine assists and seven steals on a night where she was honored for becoming the second female Wildcat to join the 2,000 point club. Crutchfield also had seven rebounds.

The Trojans outrebounded the Wildcats 52-32.

“We have to keep being aggressive on the boards,” Crutchfield said. “Everyone can rebound and help out.”

“We talked about our turnover ratio at the end of the game,” Butts said. “The difference in our first half and our second half is that we dug ourselves too big of a hole, even though we got on runs and hit shots. We had a much better second half; we actually won in the second half. We worked so hard and got the score within one possession and we gave up one three to put our momentum back to the first half.”