Cougs can’t overcome slow start

The second time around wasn’t quite as much fun for the Washington State women.

In Hawaii for a two-game series with the Rainbow Wahine, the Cougars dropped the second game Monday 65-59 at the Stan Sheriff Center.

The Cougars (7-3) beat Hawaii (3-8) 66-48 Friday.

WSU was down by as many as 17 points in the first half Monday and trailed 31-16 at the break. The Cougars managed to claw back to even at 51 on Katie Appleton’s 3-pointer with a little more than three minutes left in the game, but couldn’t get past Hawaii.

“It’s definitely a puzzle right now for us, trying to figure out why we can’t get off to a quicker start,” WSU coach June Daugherty said.

Freshman guard Jazmine Perkins led the Cougars with 14 points, and recorded seven steals, tying the freshman single-game record set by Jade Hyett against Oral Roberts on Dec. 2, 1995.

The Cougars close out the non-conference portion of their schedule Sunday at Friel Court against 22nd-ranked Kansas State at 1 p.m.

Eagles fall to Matadors: Eastern Washington jumped out to a quick lead, but couldn’t make it last in a 54-47 loss at Cal State Northridge.

The Eagles (4-8) led 15-8 five minutes into the game, but scored just six more points in the half to hold a slim 21-18 lead at the break.

Eastern led by as many as nine in the second half, but the Matadors (2-10) outscored the visitors 24-8 down the stretch.

Kyla Evans led the Eagles with 16 points, including four 3-pointers in 11 attempts.

Eastern’s next game is at home against Eastern Oregon a week from tonight at 7:05 p.m.

Vandersloot WCC player of week: Gonzaga University sophomore Courtney Vandersloot was named the West Coast Conference player of the week Monday.

The Zags’ point guard scored a game-high 22 points to help GU break Montana’s 21-game home winning streak and 25-game non-conference home winning streak with a 69-63 victory. It was her second WCC player of the week honor this season.

Schnibbe Big Sky player of week: Weber State junior guard Tonya Schnibbe from University is the Big Sky player of the week.

The 5-foot-6 Schnibbe helped the Wildcats to a pair of home wins last week, averaging 18 points, 6.5 assists, 3.5 steals and 3.0 rebounds per game.

She leads the Big Sky with 7.40 assists per game.

Girls basketball

Timberlake got 17 points from Caitlyn Nichols and 15 from Cassie Thompson as the visiting Tigers cruised to a 54-16 Intermountain League win over Orofino.