The UW women’s basketball team has gone all-out, looking for unique ways to get a win, but not even a late-night players-only film session was enough for the Huskies Saturday when they lost to Arizona State, 80-64.

“Failed it,” freshman guard Kristi Kingma said, referring to her sociology midterm the morning after the Huskies’ 3 a.m. team-bonding film session Friday morning.

The players agreed to hold the late night meeting after Thursday night’s loss to then-winless Arizona to regroup as a team.

“I think we could have been watching a Disney movie and it wouldn’t have mattered,” junior guard Sami Whitcomb said. “Us coming together really was the biggest thing and deciding that we were still in this [season], we are still going to fight.”

With the losing streak now at eight, just playing competitively with top teams is starting to feel like wins for the Huskies (5-14, 1-8 Pac-10).

“We competed our tails off. For the first time probably since Florida State, I can say that we played 40 minutes of Husky basketball,” Washington head coach Tia Jackson said. “I don’t think Arizona State knew what hit them.”

Indeed, the Sun Devils (15-6, 7-2 Pac-10) did appear shocked at the start when the Huskies came out strong and scored six of the first eight points in the game.

The UW even had a five-point lead for a few seconds before giving it up with 7:50 remaining in the first half.

But Washington fell into a 10-point deficit in the final two minutes of the first half after ASU went on an 8-0 run. The Huskies kept the rest of game within about ten points, but ASU’s halftime lead proved to be too much.

“They went on a little bit of a roll but it was just us getting a little tired towards the end of [the half],” Whitcomb said.

Whitcomb had a career-high 29 points – 15 off 3-pointers – to lead all scorers.

“She was on fire,” Jackson said of Whitcomb. “Defensively and offensively, just getting her hands on everything, and of course, 29 points is nothing to frown upon.”

Kingma also scored in double figures with 14 points, despite re-aggravating a high ankle sprain Thursday night against Arizona.

“It’s been sore, I don’t think it’s ever not going to be sore until sit out for like three to four weeks,” Kingma said. “I’ll probably have to play with it for the rest of the year.”

Reach reporter Honsen Lin at sports@dailyuw.com.