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.