WSU comes close against Huskies

The Washington State women’s basketball team still can’t win against Washington, but the Cougars certainly won the Huskies’ respect Saturday in Pullman.

“There’s no quit in those kids. They played hard,” UW coach June Daugherty said after the Cougars forced the Huskies to rally in the second half for a 73-70 victory.

Andrea Plouffe led a balanced scoring effort for Washington (11-3, 4-1 Pac-10) with 16 points. Charmaine Jones scored 14 of her 18 points in the second half for Washington State (6-8, 0-5).

The Cougars have lost seven straight and 21 in a row to Washington. However, the Cougars shot a season-high 56 percent from the field and had a chance to tie the score late against a Huskies team pushing to crack the Top 25.

Jones, who scored 12 points in the final 9:17, scored on a drive to narrow Washington’s lead to 72-70 with 45.4 seconds left. After the Huskies missed at the other end, Jones drew contact when she unleashed a scoop shot on a drive to the basket, but no foul was called, and the shot missed badly with approximately 13 seconds left to play.

“I thought she got fouled,” Washington State coach Sherri Murrell said.

The Cougars wasted valuable seconds after the Jones miss before fouling Cameo Hicks with 6.6 seconds to go. Hicks missed the second of two free throws and Washington State’s Crystal Blue spent too much time dribbling the ball before leaving Amanda DuRocher with a desperation, long-range heave as time expired.

“Emily Faurholt and Leilani Mitchell combined for 51 points, but it wasn’t enough as Louisiana Tech had four players in double-digits en route to its 105th consecutive home conference win, a 75-68 Western Athletic Conference victory over Idaho at Ruston, La.

Faurholt finished with 26 and Mitchell with 25 for Idaho (5-8, 1-1), but Ty Moore led Louisiana Tech (10-3, 2-0) with 16 points and 12 rebounds (eight offensive), and Shan Moore added 16 points and nine rebounds as the Lady Techsters held a 16-7 edge on the offensive glass.

“Whitworth survived two tying 3-point attempts by Crystal Castle in the final 5 seconds to beat Lewis and Clark (6-6, 2-2) 63-60 at Whitworth Fieldhouse and even its Northwest Conference mark at 2-2.

The Pirates (8-4) attempted 23 3-pointers, including seven by Holly Ridings, who hit two and finished with a team-high 16 points, two above her team-leading average.

“Sara Dennehy scored 32 points on 10-of-15 shooting as North Idaho (11-5, 4-1) scored a 74-71 overtime win over Eastern Utah (10-6, 1-4) in Scenic West Athletic Conference action at Price, Utah. Caitlin Courchaine added 12 points, and Lindsey Koppen chipped in with 11 for the Cardinals, who held Eastern Utah to 35 percent shooting.

“Elyse Mengarelli scored 25 points on 7-of-9 shooting as Yakima (15-1, 1-0) held off the Community Colleges of Spokane (10-6, 0-1) 68-61 in Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges action in Yakima.