Huskies overcome Cougs
PULLMAN – If there were any emotional ties to Washington State women’s basketball coach June Daugherty’s first showdown with her old Washington team they certainly weren’t evident at Friel Court Friday night.
After the Huskies pulled away from the Cougars for a 61-46 Pac-10 win, Daugherty was more impressed with the tie-in with Spokane’s Sacred Heart Medical Center and Bellevue’s Hope Heart Institute for the Cougs Have Heart promotion and the turnout – 1,247.
“I was really proud of the two heart organizations getting behind this game and really appreciate the crowd that came out,” said Daugherty, who suffered sudden cardiac arrest after changing jobs last spring.
“I thought we played a solid ball game for the first half. We’ve got some room for improvement and we’ll keep working on it.
“It was fun to see the (Washington) players. I haven’t seen them since I was in the hospital in May. I had a chance to talk to them after the game. It was nice to see them; they’re great kids and I just wished them well.”
As for the Huskies, the most freshman Katelan Redmon would concede was that it was a little bittersweet playing against the coach who recruited her out of Lewis and Clark rather than playing for her.
“I guess you could say that,” she said after scoring 14 points. “I just love going out there and playing.”
It was the Huskies’ 25th straight win over the Cougars (3-11, 0-3), who have lost 20 consecutive conference games.
“They did a very good job with their trapping scheme and their press, especially the second half,” Daugherty said. “We didn’t attack it aggressively. That’s where we lost the game.”
The Huskies (6-9, 1-2) forced 22 turnovers and turned them into 26 points, but the difference was in the opening minutes of the second half.
UW turned a two-point advantage into a 43-32 lead in the first 10 minutes when the Cougars struggled to get the ball into the front court. WSU had six turnovers and made just 3 of 12 shots.
“I thought they did a good job pressuring us, as far as trapping us off the wing,” said junior guard Katie Appleton, who led WSU with 16 points. “We prepared for it we just didn’t execute tonight. Same with the press break. … We didn’t handle it quite like we needed to.”
In the second half, despite backing off when the lead reached 18 with 5 minutes left, Washington had 13 points off 10 turnovers. It could have been worse but the Huskies finished with 19 turnovers of their own and only hit 10 of 18 free throws.
“We wanted to apply some pressure on them and create some havoc defensively and for the most part I thought we did that,” UW coach Tia Jackson said. “It took a little longer than I thought to do that. It didn’t work for us until the second half.”
Jess McCormack, a 6-foot-5 freshman who led UW with 16 points, started with four guards.
“It’s just a little quicker, a little more active,” Jackson said. “We had Katelan on the ball, so it just made her get into the trap a little quicker. … As soon as I made substitutions going with our two bigs it kind of slowed down our press a little bit.”
McCormack combined with 5-5 guard Emily Florence, who had 13 points, for 18 rebounds and a 43-32 advantage, which was a plus-12 in the second half.
“Obviously, McCormack and Redmon were a little bit of a load for us,” Daugherty said, “Redmon off the penetration and McCormack inside.”
It didn’t help that the Cougars were without 6-4 junior post Ebonee Coates, who is day-to-day after suffering a concussion against California on Sunday.
The Cougars only shot 32 percent, 26 in the second half, when the Huskies shot 50 percent.
WSU jumped out to a quick nine-point lead, courtesy of 3-pointers from Katie Calderwood; Jasmine Williams, who finished with10 points; and Appleton, but the Huskies slowly battled back as the Cougars turnovers and misses mounted.
After that early 13-4 lead, the Cougars only got a three-point play by Appleton and a 3 from Calderwood on consecutive possessions midway through a near 9-minute stretch that included eight of the 12 WSU turnovers, and eight missed shots.
UW took its first lead, 20-19, at the 5:16 mark when Redmon sandwiched baskets around two McCormack free throws in an 8-0 spurt. Redmond’s third basket, at 1:13, gave the Huskies a 28-26 lead at the half.
WSU remains home to play USC and UCLA next weekend.
•Alida Bower scored 20 points to guide Whitworth to a 75-70 victory over Linfield in both teams’ Northwest Conference opener at Ted Wilson Gym in McMinnville, Ore.
Leah Pomante added 12 points and Natalie Orrell chipped in 10 for the Pirates, who led the entire game.
Courtney McFadden had 20 points on 8-of-13 shooting to lead the Wildcats.
Whitworth improved to 6-4 overall. Linfield fell to 7-3.
•Danika Lawson scored 20 points and Lindsey Start added 14 as North Idaho beat the Washington All-Stars 84-67 in the second day of play at the SWAC Challenge at Christianson Gym in Coeur d’Alene.
Jeanne King had 18 points to lead the All-Stars.
NIC (10-3) will wrap up the tournament with a game against the Idaho All-Stars today at 5 p.m.