Arizona women’s basketball’s road woes continued over the weekend as the Wildcats traveled to Los Angeles, Calif., and were swept by USC and UCLA.
The two losses moved the UA to 9-18 on the season and 2-14 in Pac-12 Conference play. Since defeating Wake Forest in early December, Arizona has dropped 10 consecutive road matchups.
Arizona held its own for much of the first half on Friday night but fell 77-51 to USC at the Galen Center. Arizona point guard Candice Warthen led the team with 14 points and brought in three rebounds.
The Wildcats got off to a 10-4 start in the opening minutes and tangled back-and-forth with the Trojans throughout the first half. USC eventually added some distance and took a 33-26 lead into halftime.
Arizona struggled to maintain pace with the Trojans out of the locker room. USC shot 55 percent from the field in the second half. McKenzie Calvert led the home team with 14 points, including three makes from the outside.
USC beat the Wildcats in nearly every area, including the paint, where Arizona gave up 46 points. The Trojans won the rebounding battle 40-31 and also forced the UA into 16 turnovers.
The Wildcats were unable to find any sort of groove on offense, as they shot just 34 percent. Keyahndra Cannon stood out with 10 points, while LaBrittney Jones added in nine more off the bench.
Arizona did improve on its free-throw shooting by connecting on 11 of 13 attempts. USC, meanwhile, went 8-17 from the charity stripe.
The Wildcats closed out the trip on Sunday afternoon by falling 75-41 to UCLA at Pauley Pavilion.
UA guard Malena Washington knocked down a trio of 3-pointers en route to a team-high 15 points. No other Wildcat scored in double figures.
Arizona put together one of its worst shooting displays of the season by making just 26 percent of its attempts from the field. Aside from Washington, the UA went 0-17 from behind the arc.
UCLA did not shoot the ball well itself but had enough offense to pull away early on.
After the game was tied at 9-9 after eight minutes, the Bruins went on a 15-4 run to provide some distance. The lead had grown to 40-23 by halftime in favor of UCLA.
Kelli Hayes led UCLA with 12 points, while Monique Billings added 10 more.
Arizona went six minutes without a point to start the second half while allowing the deficit to grow even larger. The Wildcats would go on to make only five field goals in the entire half.
Arizona was once again sloppy with the ball, committing 21 turnovers, which led to 26 UCLA fast-break points throughout the game. The Wildcats came down with 32 total rebounds compared to 50 by the Bruins.
UCLA also capitalized off a major discrepancy in bench points by outscoring Arizona’s bench 38-19.
The Wildcats now return home where they hope to end the regular season on a positive note. Arizona faces Colorado on Friday before playing Utah on Sunday for senior day.
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