WBK: Cougs can't hold late game lead, fall to Trojans in L.A.
Despite shooting over 50 percent from the floor, the Washington State women’s basketball team was unable to secure victory against Southern California (18-8, 6-8 Pac-12), falling, 64-62, at the Galen Center in Los Angeles Sunday evening.
WSU senior Dawnyelle Awa led the Cougars (12-13, 3-11) with 16 points, one shy of her career high. Freshman Borislava Hristova added 12 points and redshirt-freshman Nike McClure recorded a career-high 10 points.
Leading by one point with four minutes left in the game, the Cougars conceded a 7-0 run, giving USC a 62-56 lead. WSU senior Mariah Cooks converted a layup, followed by a basket from Hristova to cut the USC lead to two points with 28 seconds to play. A steal gave the Cougars the opportunity to tie the game, but sophomore Louise Brown was unable to make a pair of free throws. The Trojans responded with two made free throws to seal their victory.
“I’m really proud of our team,” WSU Head Coach June Daugherty said. “I thought our front line rose to the occasion. They played very well, especially in the second half. Rebounding was a big focus for us as a team, and it’s great to see us outrebounding someone. You look at the stats – the shooting and the rebounding, but we shot 3-of-11 from the free throw line. And obviously the 27 turnovers aren’t good. It was very uncharacteristic of us. We have to handle the pressure a lot better than what we did this weekend.”
Despite tenacious defense that limited the Trojans to .397 (23-of-58) from the field, the Cougars were unable to take care of the basketball offensively, giving up a season-high 27 turnovers for the second-straight game. WSU forced USC into 20 turnovers and outrebounded USC, 37-30. Awa pulled in a team-best six rebounds, and dished out four assists in the game.
“Dawnyelle had a great ball game,” Daugherty said of the senior. “She stayed very aggressive both halves. She led us in rebounding, which is great to see.”
To open the game, the Trojans jumped to a 22-17 lead at the end of the first quarter, building a six point lead by halftime. The Cougars entered the locker room trailing USC, 39-31. In the second half, WSU outscored the Women of Troy 31-25 and held USC to .276 (8-of-29) shooting, but untimely turnovers cost the Cougars the victory.
The Cougars shot over 50 percent for the second time this season, finishing 28-of-54 (.519) from the floor. However, WSU struggled from the free throw line, converting just 3-of-11 from the stripe. The Trojans finished 14-of-19 from the free throw line.
WSU’s McClure pulled in four rebounds and recorded two blocks, in addition to her career-high 10 points. The redshirt-freshman moved into fourth place in WSU freshman history with 24 blocks this season. As a -team, the Cougars recorded five blocks, bringing their season total to 106, tied for second-best in school history.
“It was her second start, as a freshman,” Daugherty said of McClure. “In the second half we talked to her about getting down the floor. We thought we saw some fatigue in USC and she was able to capitalize on it. I thought she did a much better job rebounding as well.”
Washington State will continue its four-game road trip Friday, Feb. 19 in the desert. The Cougars will face nationally-ranked Arizona State at 5 p.m. in Tempe, Ariz., with coverage on the Pac-12 Networks.
