Cougar women defeated

Ify Ebekwe had 23 points and 14 rebounds, Courtney Clements added 19 and Arizona defeated Washington State 79-72 in a first-round game of the women’s Pac-10 basketball tournament Thursday night at the Galen Center in Los Angeles.

Arizona will face No. 2 Stanford in a quarterfinal game today.

The Wildcats are 0-2 in both meetings against Stanford this season, but lost its last game to the Cardinal one week ago by only three points.

Washington State and Arizona traded baskets in a second half that had four ties and eight lead changes, but the Wildcats hit key shots down the stretch when it counted most. Ashley Frazier hit a 3-pointer with 6:52 remaining to give Arizona (12-18) the lead for good (63-60) and Clements added a 3-pointer with 1:50 remaining.

April Cook had two 3-pointers for the Cougars (11-19) with less than 40 seconds remaining to bring Washington State within four, but Reiko Thomas and Clements combined to hit five free throws to finish the game.

Washington 69, Oregon 43: Sami Whitcomb scored 28 points and Laura McLellan had 15 points and seven rebounds to help the Huskies (8-21) rout the Ducks (9-21) in the opening round of the conference tournament.

Whitcomb made a career-high six 3-pointers for the 10th-seeded Huskies and was one point shy of her career high.

Washington had not won a conference tournament game since 2005.

Ellie Manou led Oregon with 15 points and Micaela Cocks added 13.

The Ducks but made just 30 percent of their field-goal tries.