Whyte also had nine assists and seven steals on a night where she was honored for becoming the second player in Arizona women’s basketball history to score 2,000+ points.
As a team, Arizona forced 18 turnovers and only committed 13, including zero in the second half.
“We came out the first half and didn’t do anything close to what we wanted to do, especially on defense,” Arizona 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 tonight.”
In the first half, UA came out strong with two three-pointers, but USC went on a 17-1 run to create a 14-point deficit. Arizona went on short runs, but the Trojans answered and led, 39-26 at halftime.
The Wildcats came to play in the second half, executing two 8-0 runs and narrowing the score to within one at 51-50. USC responded and despite being outscored in the second half, closed out the game, 74-62.
Senior Christina Marinacci led USC with 16 points and 18 rebounds and junior Cassie Harberts added 23 points and 11 rebounds.
The Wildcats will close their regular season to host No. 16 UCLA Bruins for senior day at 1 p.m. on Sunday, March 3.
“We know we can’t stay still,” Butts said. “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.”
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“We came out the first half and didn’t do anything close to what we wanted to do, especially on defense. 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 tonight.”
On game-plan now:
“We have found a way to lose a game in every way we possibly can and that’s very frustrating. 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.”
On what went wrong tonight:
“There was physical play that we needed and didn’t have. You look at the opportunities we have with the ball and it becomes really difficult, because we know what we can do, but we haven’t been able to finish with those opportunities. We talked about our turnover ratio at the end of the game. 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.”
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