SEATTLE, Wash. – Despite putting three in double-figures, the Washington State women's basketball team dropped their opening Pac-12 contest at No. 9 Washington, 94-63, on Tuesday night. The game kicked off conference play for the entire Pac-12 as the two instate rivals met at the Huskies' Alaska Airlines Arena.
The Cougars (5-7, 0-1 Pac-12), could not keep pace with the nation's fourth ranked offense as the Huskies (13-1, 1-0 Pac-12) took advantage of a long-range attack to take home the win. For WSU, the game was decided in the second quarter when the Huskies came up with 32 points while holding the Cougs to a season-low six. During the run, UW hit six of their 16 three-pointers, a season-high against WSU.
The Cougars would find a solid offensive rhythm in the second half, keeping pace with UW in the final 20 minutes. However, it would not be enough to close the gap on the high-scoring Huskies who answered each WSU run with one of their own.
In the loss, the Cougars saw the continued emergence of their freshmen tandem from Hawaii as both Chanelle Molina and Cameron Fernandez came up with 11 points to lead the way. The scoring effort by Molina marked her seventh-straight double-digit effort while Fernandez crossed the 10-point threshold for the first time in four games of action. Finishing just behind the freshmen, senior Ivana Kmetovska tallied 10 points for her second double-digit scoring night. She would also add a career-best seven rebounds.
On the other side, the Huskies found their offense from their usual suspects as the starters came up with the bulk of their points. Natalie Romeo led the attack with a season-best 25 points on 7-of-12 shooting from deep. The nation's top scorer, Kelsey Plum, came up with 21 points while Chantel Osahor finished with her 11th double-double of the year with 18 points and 11 rebounds. Off the bench, Aarion McDonald came up with 11 points as the Huskies shot 50.0% (34-of-68) from the floor while hitting 16-of-34 from deep.
The win marked the seventh-straight for the Huskies in the all-time series between the two teams. The 94 points were the most scored against the Cougars since Montana scored 90 on March 19, 2014 in the first round of the WNIT.
The Cougars are back to the court Friday, December 30, at No. 15 Oregon State as the two teams play the final game of the calendar year at 4 p.m. The game also marks the fifth of six-consecutive road games for the Cougars.
