Hot-shooting Dawgs rip apart Wildcats

[url='http://thedaily.washington.edu/photoGallery/060127wbb.php'][img1][/url]Kristen O'Neill can get on a hot-streak shooting 3-pointers, and the Huskies can flat clean the glass.

The Arizona Wildcats became the latest team to learn both these facts the hard way in a 91-73 loss to the Huskies at Hec Edmundson Pavilion last night.

O'Neill, a senior guard, scored 12-straight points for the Huskies to close out a 25-8 run and assure the victory. The UW held Arizona scoreless for a five-minute stretch during the run.

O'Neill matched a career-high by draining four 3-pointers for the fourth time in her career, including three straight to put the Dawgs up 69-50. On the play before hitting the third straight she converted a 3-point play for Washington. She went on to lead the Dawgs with 19 points.

As for the rebounds, Washington (14-5 overall, 7-3 Pac-10) dominated Arizona (7-13, 3-7). The Pac-10's leading rebounding team grabbed 39 boards to the Wildcats' 20, while limiting them to three on the offensive glass.

Eleven different Dawgs grabbed at least two rebounds, while only three Wildcats accomplished the feat.

"We knew that they were a bit undersized," said junior forward Breanne Watson. "Coming in we were stressing the offensive rebounds, crashing the boards and boxing out."

Watson's seven boards led a Huskies team that kept Arizona from scoring any second-chance points, while they scored 22 of their own.

O'Neill wasn't the only Husky making the Wildcats pay from the outside. Junior guard Cheri Craddock also sank four threes on her way to a career-high 16 points. Combined with O'Neill, the two made eight of 11 attempts from long range.

Watson, Cameo Hicks and Andrea Plouffe added 11 points each for the winners.

The Huskies led by only two points (44-42) before going on the run to end Arizona's chances at a third upset over the past two weeks. The Wildcats had beat Oregon and Cal heading into the game.

Junior guard Angie Jones made a last-minute tip-in to push the Huskies over the 90-point hump for the second time in four games. The play brought the crowd to their feet.

Having won 13 of its last 14 home games, Washington hosts the No. 19 Arizona State Sun Devils (15-5, 6-4) Saturday at 1 p.m. While they are off to their best start since 2002-03, the Dawgs dropped the last meeting to ASU 64-51, earlier this season.