Wildcats claw their way through the North Country...

In the Stands Report by Bookemdano: It is easy to see why the Washington Huskies are 15-1 at home this season.

Bully and push the visiting team around, yet get the referees to see it your way for 40 minutes. Go to the line and hit 29 of 42 attempts. Figure out a way to get five fouls called as early as possible on the visiting team's best inside player. And then wait for the ball to bounce your way down the stretch. All of that happened last night and more as the Huskies held off the Wildcats' bench to win the Pac-10 matchup, 81-75.

The Huskies won the battle, but there is still a very good chance that the Wildcats could win the war. With USC's win over California, UCLA's victory over Stanford and ASU's win over Washington State last night, the gutsy Arizona team is still tied for first place in the Pac-10, along with the Devils, the Bruins and the Golden Bears -- all at 6-4.

The Pac-10 standings are a mess -- if you have four losses you're on top and if you have six losses you're in the cellar. Wacky! On a night when Derrick Williams fouled out after playing just eight minutes and Kevin Parrom followed suit, hitting the pine after his 26 minutes of hard-nosed play, the Wildcats' coach, Sean Miller, turned to the bench for help.

And help they did! The bench scored 40 points and garnered 20 rebounds, while the Arizona starters managed just 35 points. MoMo Jones led the way with 14 points, while Brendon Lavender added 11 points, nine of them coming from three-point range. Solomon Hill scored 12 points and grabbed seven boards and Kyryl Natyazhko came off the bench to grab seven boards as well. The Arizona bench clocked 94 minutes. That is going to help Miller and the Wildcats down the stretch. I'm sure Miller wasn't happy with the loss, but he had to be happy with the production from his reserves. Win or lose on Saturday in Pullman against Washington State, the Wildcats will still return home to play five of their final seven Pac-10 games at home. The Wildcats chances for a Pac-10 title are improving day to day. Hats off to the Arizona bench.