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WSU routed at home by UW after beating Huskies in Seattle

WSU’s Tia Presley shoots during Sunday’s game in which she scored eight points. (Tyler Tjomsland)
WSU’s Tia Presley shoots during Sunday’s game in which she scored eight points. (Tyler Tjomsland)Buy a print of this photo
By Jacob Thorpe jacobt@spokesman.com(509) 710-8070

PULLMAN – Two days made a world of difference for the Washington State women’s basketball team, which couldn’t compete with Washington in an 83-43 loss that came just two days after knocking off the Huskies in Seattle.

The loss guarantees a 24th consecutive non-winning Pac-12 record for the Cougars, who have lost six of their last eight games. Last year’s 9-9 finish was the first .500 or better record for the program since the 1990-91 season.

The Cougars have been playing without starting center Shalie Dheensaw since her career-ending knee injury on Jan. 16.

Defensively, the Cougars lost track of Talia Walton early in the game and she made them pay with set shots from behind the arc, scoring 11 points in four possessions to stake the Huskies to a 13-7 lead. Walton and Kelsey Plum – the Pac-12 scoring leader – paced the Huskies with 22 points apiece. Jazmine Davis and Aminah Williams chipped in 16 and 10 points, respectively, while no Cougar scored in double figures.

After dishing 16 assists in Friday’s 83-72 win, WSU (15-12, 6-10 Pac-12) had just four on Sunday as the offense stagnated while different players took turns trying to shoot the Cougars back into the game. Starting guard Dawnyelle Awa made her only 3-point attempt – the rest of WSU’s starters were a combined 0 for 11.

The lethargic offense was due in part to a defense that lacked its usual teeth.

“I think the energy was a lot different,” forward Mariah Cooks said. “We didn’t come in with that mental edge that we came with in the first game.”

Coach June Daugherty credited that lack of energy for WSU’s inability to get anything going on offense. The Cougars lead the Pac-12 in steals per game but had just four on Sunday, two of which came early in the second half when Lia Galdeira pilfered the ball twice to jump-start an 8-2 run and cut the UW lead to 11.

But the Huskies (20-8, 9-7) buried WSU with a 24-0 run in the second half that lasted nearly 10 minutes. The Cougars made just 5 of 29 field-goal attempts after halftime and shot only 23.7 percent for the game.

“It’s tough for us to get in our press if we’re not scoring and we weren’t scoring,” Daugherty said. “We turned them over a lot in Seattle with our pressure but it comes off a make most of the time.”

A crowd of 1,203 fans attended Sunday’s game, many of them presumably staying for the men’s game in the evening.

Next week the Cougars host UCLA and USC to finish up the regular season. Both games will be critical for Pac-12 tournament seeding as the Cougars are currently tied with the Bruins for seventh place in the conference and can still catch the Trojans in sixth.