Romberg, Awa key Cougs past Trojans

Freshman Dawnyelle Awa scored a career-high 11 points and Sage Romberg blocked a late shot to help preserve Washington State’s 57-54 win over visiting USC in Pac-12 women’s basketball Friday.

The Cougars (9-13, 5-6) recorded a fourth consecutive conference win for the first time since the 1994-95 season. The win allowed WSU to tie the Trojans (8-14, 5-6) for sixth, a game behind Colorado.

Freshman Lia Galdeira hit back-to-back jumpers and Awa made a 3-pointer to cap an 8-0 run for a 53-47 Cougars lead with 2:56 left.

Kiki Alofaituli made a layup with 1:09 left and hit 1 of 2 free throws 19 seconds later to cut WSU’s lead to 55-54. Romberg blocked Alofaituli’s shot with 5 seconds left. Galdeira secured the rebound and hit two free throws with 2 seconds left.

UCLA 65, Washington 61: Alyssia Brewer and Atonye Nyingifa combined for 35 points and 24 rebounds and the Bruins (18-4, 9-2 Pac-12) hit 6 of 6 free throws in the final 32 seconds to hold off the host Huskies (16-6, 8-3) and move into third place in the Pac-12 alone.

Blue Mountain 66, CC Spokane 62: Shay Rodriguez scored 19 points, hitting 8 of 9 from the floor, as the Timberwolves (10-12, 5-5 NWAACC) upset the Sasquatch (13-9, 6-4) in Pendleton, Ore., dropping them into a third-place tie with Yakima Valley in the East Region.

North Central graduates Kalen Via (12 points) and Hailey Markham-Patti (3 of 6 on 3-pointers) helped BMCC. NC grad Riley Holsinger scored 19 points and Morgan Freeman had eight rebounds for CCS.

Men’s basketball

Darius Butler led five players in double figures with 16 points and Blue Mountain (12-10, 6-4) beat Community Colleges of Spokane 75-61 in an NWACC game in Pendleton, Ore.

Brady Bagby scored 18 points for the Sasquatch (15-8, 6-4).

Baseball

Whitworth gave up four runs in the bottom of the eighth inning three unearned, and fell to Cal Lutheran 5-4 in a nonconference season opener in Thousand Oaks, Calif.

Erik Nikssarian had two hits and an RBI for the Pirates.

• Based on a poll of the Pac-12 coaches, Washington State was picked to tie for eighth. Washington was 10th in the poll. Stanford was selected as the preseason favorite.

Swimming

The Whitworth men and women hold huge leads after the first day of the Northwest Conference Championships in Federal Way.

The Pirate men did not have an individual winner, but lead Whitman by 42 points thanks to their depth. The Whitworth women lead Pacific Lutheran by 78.5 points. The three-day meet concludes on Sunday.

Men’s golf

Washington lost to UCLA in a playoff at the Ameri Ari Invitational in Waikoloa, Hawaii.

Chris Williams, the top-ranked amateur in the world from Moscow, Idaho, shot a final-round 76 and tied for 20th at 2-under-par 214.