WASHINGTON ST. (8-8, 1-3) at STANFORD (9-7, 3-1)
6 p.m. | Friday | Jan. 12, 2018
Palo Alto, Calif. | Maples Pavilion (7,233)
MATCHUP NOTES
The Cougs head to California to take on Stanford and No. 24 Cal over the weekend. Last season, the Cougs fell to Stanford at home in the lone regular season meeting. Two months later, the Cougs faced Stanford once again in the Pac-12 tournament with the Cardinal prevailing en route to taking the Pac-12 championship title. WSU is looking for its first win over the Cardinal with Stanford holding a 62-0 record against the Cougs all-time.
LAST TIME OUT
In a game dominated by whistles it was no surprise that the contest would be decided at the free throw line as Utah (12-3, 3-1 Pac-12) hit a pair of freebies with 0.5 seconds remaining in the game to steal a win on the road against the Cougars (8-8, 1-3 Pac-12) Sunday afternoon at Beasley Coliseum. Dominating for most of the game, the Cougs could never quite shake the hard-nosed Utes despite another huge scoring effort out of
Borislava Hristova who scored a game-high 29 points and finished just one point shy of being the third Coug to ever record back-to-back 30-point efforts. For three quarters, the Cougs shot the lights out of Beasley, pushing their lead to as much as 13 points late in the third before going cold in the game's final period. The Utes climbed back into the game with a 14-2 run, initially sparked by the play of Daneesha Provo, between the end of the third and the start of the fourth to turn a potential blowout into a 69-69 tie with 7:37 to play. Provo would score 14 of her 22 points in the second half before fouling out of the game 2:27 to go. With Provo out, the Cougs would score five quick points to go up 77-72 with 2:03 to play only to be outscored 9-2 in the final minutes.
Alexys Swedlund would tie the game at 79-79 with the Cougs final points of the game from the line only to see the game slip away in the final second thanks to the two free throws by Tilar Clark. Clark was fouled after collecting a pair of offensive rebounds when the Cougs forced an initial bad shot by the Utes with just :04 seconds to play.Â
ABOUT THE CARDINAL
The Cardinal enter the week sitting outside of the top-25 for the second time this season after seeing their 17-year ranked streak come to an end two weeks ago. Stanford enters the day just 9-7 on the year but 3-1 in Pac-12 play with its lone loss in the conference coming last Sunday to No. 18 Arizona State. Playing one of the nation's toughest schedules, the Cardinal are averaging 68.1 points per game while allowing 64.0 points per game to their opponents. Leading the attack (when healthy) is Brittany McPhee who has scored 18.1 ppg but has been limited to just seven games on the year due to a foot injury. In the middle, Alanna Smith has carried much of the load with 13.5 ppg and a team-best 8.0 rpg.
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