The Husky women took the Pac-10 cellar all to themselves Saturday with a 72-62 loss to Arizona, their 15th loss in Pac-10 play.

The last-place Huskies (6-21, 2-15 Pac-10) were disappointed the first time they lost to No. 9 Arizona (10-16, 4-12 Pac-10), and this time was no different.

“This was a game we definitely should have taken,” UW head coach Tia Jackson said on radio station 1150 AM KKNW.

The key moment of the game came with 9:46 remaining, when Washington center Laura McLellan was called for a technical foul after bouncing the ball into the stands in frustration after a personal foul.

“The timing of all that was definitely not to our liking at all,” Jackson said. “It gave a team that already had the momentum all the momentum in the game, because they took that, they fueled off of it, and they continued to come after us.”

Jackson acknowledged that McLellan’s fouls rattled the Huskies.

“When you look at a young team watching one of the upperclassmen do that, they get shaken too,” Jackson said of McLellan’s technical. “[Controlling emotions is] something that we’re working on with Laura.”

With that series of events, Arizona was able to turn a 48-44 lead into a 53-44 lead within 10 seconds, after three free throws by Courtney Clements and a fast-break basket. The UW never recovered after that.

With 3:17 remaining in the first half, the Huskies had a 14-point lead before allowing the Wildcats to go on a 9-1 run to close out the half.

“The first half was great,” freshman guard Nicole Romeo said. “We pushed the ball a lot, and we played some down defensively and got a lot of transition baskets. And then in the second half, we just couldn’t come out and bring the same energy level.”

Jackson said Arizona applied pressure defense in the backcourt in the second half, which bothered the Huskies offensively, and that the Wildcats — who were held to just three offensive rebounds in the first stanza — came alive on the boards in the second half.

“We did not put the hammer on, big time, and I’m going to take full responsibility for not getting this team to fight past a certain point,” Jackson said.

Reach reporter Honsen Lin at sports@dailyuw.com.