Area women’s basketball: No. 21 Arizona topples WSU

Cate Reese scored 26 points on Friday night and No. 21 Arizona never trailed after the first quarter in a 74-67 win over Washington State in a Pac-12 Conference women’s basketball game at Beasley Coliseum in Pullman.

Reese made all 11 of her free throws and the Wildcats (14-3, 3-3 Pac-12) made 21 of 22 from the foul line. Aari McDonald added 19 points and eight rebounds.

Arizona scored the first nine points of the third quarter and added a 7-0 run later in the period to pull away.

The Cougars went on a 13-2 run to cut the deficit to seven and got within 70-65 with 39 seconds left.

The Cougars (9-8, 2-3) shot 56% (28 of 50) from the field but committed 22 turnovers.

Chanelle Molina had 19 points, Borislava Hristova scored 14 and Ula Motuga added 10 for WSU.

George Fox 86, Whitworth 76: Emily Spencer scored a team-high 20 points to lead the host Bruins (11-3, 3-2) to a Northwest Conference victory over the Pirates (9-5, 2-3) in Newberg, Oregon.

Talia Brandner and Sydney Abbott scored 21 and 20 points, respectively, for Whitworth, which led as much as 62-48 in the third quarter before George Fox stormed back.

The Pirates fell out of a three-way tie for fourth place and into sixth in the conference. Whitworth plays at Pacific on Saturday at 4 p.m.