SPOKANE, Wash. - Playing their first true road game of the season, the Washington State women's basketball team dropped a tough one at Gonzaga falling 79-61 at the Kennel Thursday night. The loss for the Cougars (5-4) was their first in the last three games against the Zags (6-2) who became the first West Coast Conference team to beat WSU on the season.

Playing without one of their starters and their second-leading scorer for the second-straight game, the Cougars only saw the night get worse as they lost their top threat just eight minutes into the game in what would turn out to be a rough trip to Spokane for Washington State. Out of the gate, the Cougs found themselves in trouble as the Zags hit their first eight shots en route to a 34-point opening quarter. The 34 points were the most given up by the Cougars in a single quarter on the year as they found themselves down 14, 34-20, after just 10 minutes to play. The deficit was not due to a lack of offense for WSU as the Cougs shot 52% in the opening period only to see it dwarfed by the 80% shot by the Zags.

Needing points, the Cougs suffered a blow to their efforts early in the second quarter when they lost leading scorer, Borislava Hristova, for the remainder of the game. Hristova left the game with just two points in eight minutes, tying the lowest scoring total for the sophomore standout in her young career. Down their top two players, the Cougs attempted to claw back into the game but found themselves down 18 at the break despite getting nine points out of the freshman Chanelle Molina and a quick six out of sophomore Maria Kostourkova, who found herself in the starting lineup for the second-consecutive game in place of an injured Louise Brown.

In the second half, the Cougs used an 11-0 run early in the third quarter to cut the Zag lead to just 10 with 5:30 to go in the period, but an extended scoring-drought to finish off the quarter allowed the Bulldogs to erase the early efforts. From there, the fourth quarter was played relatively evenly as the Cougs won the final 10 minutes, 17-14, to finish the game. 

Overall, the Cougs put two in double-figures in Molina (11 points) and Kostourkova (10 points). The effort by Molina marked her fourth-straight game scoring in double-figures as she led the team in scoring for the second-consecutive contest. Kostourkova added five rebounds and tied her career high with five blocks. Senior Ivana Kmetovska ended her night with eight points and five rebounds before leaving the court injured late in the fourth quarter as the Cougs finished the game with just two of five regular starters intact.

The Zags finished the night shooting 54.5% (30-of-55) from the floor, a season-best against the Cougs on the year. They did most of their damage from deep hitting 10-of-16 while the Cougs were just 1-of-12 from distance. Leading the attack was Jill Barta who posted 16 points to go with eight rebounds while Emma Stach posted 12 points including 3-of-3 from deep and fifth-year senior Elle Tinkle chipped in 11. Gonzaga held a 36-to-27 rebounding edge despite the Cougs entering the game ranked No. 11 in the nation in rebounds per game.

The Cougs will look to regroup and get healthy over the next 10 days as the team does not play again until Dec. 18 when Washington State hits the road to take on St. Louis. The game against the Billikens is the first of two on the road trip to end non-conference play as WSU will also play No. 10 Kentucky in Lexington on Dec. 21. Pac-12 play begins after the Holiday break when the Cougs take on their in-state rivals, the No. 11 ranked Washington Huskies, on Dec. 27.