SEATTLE – It was a shock, one that easily and understandably could have ruined a season.
On Sept. 26 of last year, Arizona women’s basketball star Shawntinice Polk collapsed and died at the McKale Center. The 22-year-old Polk, a three-time honorable mention All-American, was the Pacific-10’s leading active career scorer and rebounder at the time of her death, which was later found to have been caused by a blood clot in her lungs.
The death shook the basketball team and it took the Wildcats a long time to put the tragedy behind them.
“It’s something that we obviously can’t recover from any time soon,” Arizona coach Joan Bonvincini said earlier this season. “She was such a huge part of everything we do, and that goes beyond basketball. She was the player everyone looked to when we needed leadership. It was just a huge, huge loss.”
Arizona seemed to have recovered fairly well, winning four of its first six games. Then the collapse arrived. The Wildcats lost nine of their next 10 games, including a 66-54 loss to Washington on Dec. 31.
Arizona has now won two of its last three and will try to make it three of four when it plays Washington at 7 p.m. today at Hec Edmundson Pavilion.
Just the fact that the Wildcats have been able to compete has impressed their opponents.
“It’s very unfortunate what transpired,” Huskies coach June Daugherty said. “Everybody misses Polkie. I think their team should be commended. It’s unbelievable what they’ve done, to continue on and play in her honor. And they’re playing pretty good basketball. It’s amazing what they’ve accomplished and I don’t think they’re done yet. They’re hitting their stride.”
Arizona (3-6 Pac-10, 7-12 overall) earned a big win its last time out, defeating California on the road and snapping a nine-game home win streak for the Golden Bears. The Wildcats are doing it with a small lineup that starts four guards, including two from Seattle, Joy Hollingsworth and Malia O’Neal. Two other Seattle-bred players, Kelsey Burns and Che Oh, also play for Arizona. Maybe that’s one of the reasons that Arizona has won its last two games at Hec Ed.
The last time the teams met, Arizona’s pressure gave the Huskies all kinds of trouble. Washington turned the ball over 17 times in the first half, including 13 times in the first nine minutes. The Huskies eventually settled down and when they got into their halfcourt offense, they were able to exploit their size advantage. Center Andrea Plouffe had 14 points and forward Breanne Watson scored 13.
“We didn’t show a lot of poise against their pressure,” Daugherty said. “The thing was, we were able to snap out of that and stay with it and get back into our system. Then we started to get some stops, get into our running game and get some easy scoring chances.”
Arizona has struggled defensively, allowing 72.1 points a game and 46.7 percent shooting. The Wildcats are also the worst rebounding team in the league, getting out-boarded by 2.9 a game, though they’re second in the conference (behind Washington) in offensive rebounding.
Hollingsworth has given Arizona a lift after transferring from San Francisco. She averages 14.6 points and 6.4 rebounds. Natalie Jones averages 13.2 points and 4.9 rebounds and Ashley Whisonant averages 13.5 points. But as a team, the Wildcats are shooting just 39.3 percent.
The Huskies game will again be a tale of two offenses. First, guards Emily Florence, Cameo Hicks and Kristen O’Neill must handle Arizona’s press. Then the Huskies will need to look inside to Plouffe and Watson. Plouffe has reached double figures in points in seven of the last 10 games and is averaging 11.4 points in Pac-10 play. Hicks continues to lead the team in scoring at 15.0 points a game.
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