The No. 18 Arizona Wildcats will face their last big challenge of the regular season when they play the No. 4 Utah Utes on Friday at 9 p.m. ET. A road win for Utah will keep them in contention for the Pac-12 title, while Arizona will be looking to spoil that title opportunity and get into the Top 15 with a win.
The Wildcats have been put to the test all February long and so far, they’ve passed. They’ve beaten No. 16 UCLA, Cal, and No. 25 USC. They did lose in blowout fashion to Stanford, but, then again, who hasn’t?
Now they face a Utah team that’s playing as well as anyone in the nation. To beat them, they’ll need to rely on their top-level talent. That means Cate Reese, Shaina Pellington, Jade Loville and Esmery Martinez have to have big games.
The bad news for Arizona is that it lost the last time these two teams met. The good news? The margin of defeat was just one point. It took a pair of Alissa Pili free throws to secure the win. So these teams aren’t as far apart as their records indicate. There’s a familiarity here and with home court, Arizona has an excellent chance to pull off the upset.
Utah has turned out to be one of the best teams in the country. The Utes are Top 4 in the nation, tied for first with a 12-2 record in the conference and have…
