Washington State Women’s Basketball: Cougs Fail to Capture Fifth Straight, Lose to UCLA 80-65
By Josh Davis
It was close for longer than the UCLA Lady Bruins would’ve wanted, but in the end they dispatched the Cougar women in convincing fashion, winning by 15.
Washington State played a gutty game, sticking with the Bruins point for point till about midway through the second half. At that point UCLA jumped out ahead for good with a 16-3 run to expand a 49-48 lead to 14 at 65-51. The Cougs cut it to with just over 3 minutes remaining, similar to what the men did the day before in LA, but couldn’t pull any closer. UCLA went white-hot in the second half, scoring on 17 of 20 shots and scoring a combined 50 points inside the paint.
Lia Galdeira had 19 points for the Cougars, pairing with Sage Romberg who also went into double digits with 10 points. While 9 other Cougars scored, it just wasn’t enough.
WSU is now only 9-14 (5-7) despite having won 4 in a row prior to the UCLA contest. Still they are playing good basketball at the moment and have 6 games to close out what has been a learning experience year with 9 freshmen on the team.
Remaining on the schedule are the Ducks (lost by 2), Beavers (won by 3 in OT), Buffs, Utes, Golden Bears and Cardinal. With all but the Bay Area schools at home, the ladies have a great shot to make a run at a better than .500 conference season and some momentum into the conference tournament.