UW aiming to be No. 2 seed in Pac-10

By John Sleeper

Herald Writer

SEATTLE – It’s a pretty simple task for the University of Washington women’s basketball team this weekend against Oregon State and Oregon at Hec Edmundson Pavilion.

Win two, and the Huskies have a chance for the No. 2 seed in the Pacific-10 Conference Tournament. And in doing that, the Huskies would avoid having to play top-seed and second-ranked Stanford until the finals.

“It would be a compliment to the season that your players have put together and how hard they’ve worked,” UW coach June Daugherty said. “Stanford certainly had a great year. They’re a great team. To be second in a league with them speaks well with the basketball committee.”

Ah, the committee. Specifically, the NCAA selection committee, which will choose the teams for the national tournament.

How many Pac-10 teams the committee will take is anyone’s guess. The conference’s coaches are lobbying for four (likely Stanford, Arizona State, Washington and USC). Two Husky victories this weekend would give them 18 wins, which might give them enough if they don’t exit after one round of the Pac-10 tournament.

“The players have put themselves in this situation after not the best of preseasons,” Daugherty said. “They’ve had to fight their way out. There’s never been any easy game.”

But first things first. The biggest obstacle for Washington tonight is to limit OSU guard Felicia Ragland, the Pac-10’s top scorer (19.9 points per game) and the conference leader steals (2.73 per game) and 3-pointers (61).

“It’s very important that we don’t have a miscue, mentally,” Daugherty said. “We have to know what sets tend to give a player good looks (at the basket). We can’t have a miscue. We respect her so much and her abilities.”

Washington’s zone defense is designed so that no one defender will solo against Ragland, but that doesn’t work without fail.

“She’s a penetrator, so we have to be ready to make our shifts,” UW guard Kristin O’Neill said. “She’s extremely quick and very athletic. The first time we played them, she tried to penetrate and tried to break our zone down that way. What our help side does will be a big key for us.”