Adia Barnes questions Wildcats' fight after Arizona falls to UCLA in Pac-12 quarters

LAS VEGAS — We’ve seen this movie before. Plenty of times this season, to be sure.

Arizona gets down by a whole bunch. The Wildcats then claw their way back. Sometimes they defy all the odds and win. They did that against Oregon State, USC and UCLA (in the regular season).

Sometimes there just isn’t enough left in the tank. See Colorado and Oregon State on the road.

The latter was the story again for fourth-seeded Arizona against fifth-seeded UCLA in the Pac-12 Tournament quarterfinals.

In the end, despite both teams going on long scoring droughts in the final quarter, the Bruins hung on to win 73-59 and send UA home early Thursday afternoon at Michelob ULTRA Arena.

Arizona (21-9) now waits for Selection Sunday on March 12 to find out where it will be playing the first game of the NCAA Tournament. Any slim chance of hosting seems to be gone, unless there are many more upsets in conference tournaments this week. The Wildcats will enter the tournament on a season-long three-game losing streak.

UCLA (24-8) moves on to play in the Pac-12 semifinals against Stanford. The top-seeded Cardinal defeated Oregon later Thursday afternoon.

“I think they (UCLA) clearly wanted it more than we did,” UA coach Adia Barnes said. “They fought a little harder and just made some plays that just really hurt us. But we knew coming into this game that UCLA was tremendous on the offensive rebounds and they are gritty and they fight.

“I think that was the biggest difference in the game. But that’s a mentality, a focus and a want, and we didn’t match their desire to win.”

UCLA went on a 7:39 stretch without a field goal in the fourth quarter. Still, the Wildcats couldn’t find enough. UA was able to pull within 12 points but couldn’t get much closer in the waning minutes.

“There’s no excuses,” Barnes said. “There’s just stepping up and being consistent.”

Senior Cate Reese finished with nine points and nine rebounds but was 0 for 6 from the field. Arizona shot 32.1% from the floor and got outrebounded 46-27 — on the heels of the Beavers outboarding the Wildcats 50-28.

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The game was close in the first 20 minutes as UCLA took a 33-31 lead into halftime.

After spotting UCLA the first six points of the game, Arizona turned on the defense and scoring. Jade Loville showed that her touch was back — hitting a 3-pointer and some mid-range shots — to lead the Wildcats with eight points in the first half. Even when she missed, Loville’s shots looked like they would go in.

“That was great to see because she worked so hard, and she’s a great teammate and she does all the little things,” Barnes said. “I was happy those shots go in because she’s working every day and she was really sad about not making shots against Oregon, Oregon State.”

Loville would finish with 10 points and three rebounds. In the second half, she didn’t have space to get off shots. That was by design.

“We just tried to crowd her a little bit more,” UCLA coach Cori Close said. “She’s so good at getting her mid-range or even the deep shot off on the sort of lateral glide. We call her a glide shooter, and we need to close that gap a little bit. Putting a hand up isn’t going to do any good against her. You have to crowd her space.”

Lauren Fields went 3 for 4 for seven point in the first half. For the game, she picked two steals, blocked a shot and finished with 10 points.

This one was tight early. Helena Pueyo grabbed a steal and dished to Shaina Pellington for the score. Pellington then knocked down a jumper to give UA a 25-20 lead with seven minutes left in the half. UCLA answered with a 9-0 run to pull ahead and never relinquished the lead.

The Wildcats’ shooting went ice cold during a long stretch in the third quarter as Arizona hit no field goals in the final 7:34 of the period. That was coupled with early foul trouble for Esmery Martinez and Pellington, which kept both on the bench for long stretches. Martinez, Pellington and Pueyo each finished with four fouls.

Pellington added 10 points, and freshman Kailyn Gilbert had nine. Pueyo added three assists and three steals.

Photos: Arizona upended by UCLA, 73-59, in Pac-12 Women's Basketball Tournament quarterfinals