WSU women see run come to an end

COUGARS

FROM PULLMAN — We’re back on the Palouse with your daily dose of basketball news this Saturday morning. Most notable for patrons of this blog — the WSU women hung with Cal for a while yesterday before falling in the semifinals of the Pac-12 tournament, ending their best run in that tournament in school history.

I was able to listen to the second half of WSU’s 64-49 loss to Cal on Friday. Sounded like the Cougars ran out of gas in the second half after leading 30-25 early in that period. Of course, Cal’s astounding 59-25 rebounding margin may have had something to do with it. Still, WSU’s two wins this week were enough for coach June Daugherty to declare that WSU women’s basketball “is back.” Regardless of what you think of that statement, the Cougars accomplished something this week that seemed nearly impossible not all that long ago. At the end of the day, it’s still a 13-20 season — but those 13 wins are the most the Cougars have won in the Daugherty era, and the team’s future prospects appear far more positive than at any point in recent history. … The Seattle Times also covered the game . … Howie Stalwick covered the game , too. … The WSU baseball team dropped a 2-1 decision at UNLV on Friday.

As for yesterday’s Pac-12 action …

Arizona 72, Oregon State 61 : The Wildcats are in the tournament championship game for the second consecutive season after overcoming an early deficit. Oregon State made a nice run before Arizona clamped down defensively.

Colorado 70, California 59 : The Bears’ loss means the Pac-12’s automatic NCAA bid is going to a team that wouldn’t have made it otherwise. Cal should be in , but will still be sweating a bit on selection Sunday.

Today: Arizona vs. California , 3 p.m. (CBS)

A freshman is hoping to compete for Colorado’s quarterback job. … USC appears to have regained a speedy tailback . A Trojans receiver is also off to a quick start in spring practices. … A former receiver is trying quarterback again for Arizona. … Josh Smith says he’s returning to UCLA next season. … Arizona State is losing a basketball player who wants to play football. … Hey, did you hear the Pac-12 isn’t very good this year? Thank goodness someone wrote another column about it. … WSU’s first football opponent, BYU, has a running back competition on its hands. And some rugby players are givnig football a shot.

Christian Caple can be reached at christianc@spokesman.com . Twitter: @ChristianCaple