From rough beginnings to triumphant ends, the UW women’s basketball team will look to build on its accumulation of experiences to make some noise at the Pac-10 tournament in San Jose, Calif., this weekend.

Women’s basketball fans from all over the Western seaboard will pack HP Pavilion to watch the best of the best in the Pac-10 fight each other for an automatic conference bid to the NCAA tournament later this month.

The Husky women (13-17, 8-10 Pac-10), by upsetting then-No. 9 California last weekend, took the sixth seed in the tournament to avoid playing a low-seed game Friday. Instead the Dawgs will face off Saturday against the third seed, Arizona State (20-9, 14-4 Pac-10).

“[We are] definitely happy we’re not playing on Friday with all the injuries we’ve had,” UW coach Tia Jackson said. “It helps us to get some rest in for those who need it, and at the same time, if everything goes according to plan, three days of basketball is better than four.”

The plan is clear: Make it all the way.

The odds against them are big, but the Huskies officially broke out and announced their referendum on the top-tier teams in the conference last weekend by playing top-seed Stanford and beating second-seed Cal 74-66 on Senior Day.

Sophomore guard Sami Whitcomb, who won Pac-10 Player of the Week honors for her 24-point outburst against Cal, feels the Dawgs are fully capable.

“It gives us a lot of momentum and a lot of confidence,” Whitcomb told to GoHuskies.com about beating Cal. “We’ve believed all year that we can play with anybody; to get this win shows for us that we can not only play with anybody but we can beat anybody.”

Arizona State is no slouch to beat. The Dawgs lost both regular season games to the Sun Devils, 68-62 at home and most recently 53-69 in Tempe, Ariz.

The Dawgs will have to contain junior forward Lauren Lacey and junior guard Briann January if they want to make it into the semi-final round. Lacey and January are averaging 12.9 and 11 points per game, respectively, but the shooting duo has averaged 33 points per game combined against the Huskies this season.

Washington will have to counter with its best weapons on offense — Whitcomb and freshman Katelan Redmon — while making sure senior point guard Emily Florence doesn’t get knocked out of the equation by the Sun Devils.

Jackson said Florence is like the head of a body — if it gets cut off, the game is over — but noted that the team has a better chance now that it has experienced ASU’s strategy.

“It’s always a challenge playing them,” Jackson said. “Here (at home) it should have been our game. It’s good that we’re going to have them on a neutral floor, and we just have to be able to sustain the pressure they’re going to throw at us.”

After months of hard lessons, daunting season prospects and injuries, the Husky women believe they are finally on the right track.

Their realization couldn’t have come at a better time.

[Reach reporter Allen Wagner at sports@thdaily.washington.edu.]