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Utah women roll past Washington State in Ula Motuga’s return

Washington State’s Ula Motuga returned from a two-game absence to match her season high with 14 points in the Cougars 78-66 loss to the Utah Utes on Sunday in Pullman. (Courtesy photo)

Sophomore Ula Motuga scored a season-high 14 points in her return from a two-game absence, but the Washington State Cougars ran into a hot-shooting Utah team on Sunday, falling 78-66 to the Utes in Pac-12 Conference action in Pullman.

Motuga’s 14-point effort led a trio of double-digit scorers for the Cougs as the sophomore returned to action after missing the last two games due to injury. The 14 points for Motuga matches her season high.

Redshirt senior Borislava Hristova and redshirt junior Johanna Muzet each scored 12 points for WSU (11-13, 4-8). The 12-point effort for Muzet matched her season high in points, while Hristova’s performance moves her into a tie for 16th place on the Pac-12’s all-time scoring list with Cal’s Ashley Walker with 2,142 career points.

Washington State scored the first four points, but Utah (12-11, 5-7) would then roll off 13 straight points to set the tone for the afternoon. The Utes hit 6 of 7 3-pointers during the first two quarters to build a 21-point lead at the break. Utah led by as many as 34 points in the third quarter, before Washington State scored 29 fourth-quarter points, two shy of the Cougars’ record for a final period.

“Give credit to Utah. They really came ready to play,” said Cougars coach Kamie Ethridge. “They put a lot of shooters on the floor and we never really got a handle on that. We didn’t want to give them 3s and we pretty much let them have shooting practice.

“We just weren’t very sharp offensively, and we just didn’t have the fight and the fire that we normally do, and it’s showed. Utah outplayed us today in ever capacity.”

The Utes shot a blistering 51.9% from the floor against the Cougars, while they held WSU to a 37.7% field goal percentage. Utah was red-hot from behind the arc as they hit 7 of 14 shots.

Washington State concludes its four-game homestand at 2-2, and they now head back on the road for a two-game swing through the desert next week at Arizona State on Friday and Arizona on Sunday.