PULLMAN, Wash. – The Washington State University women's basketball team was handed its first defeat inside Beasley Coliseum of the 2019-20 season on Sunday, as the Cougars dropped a 76-53 decision to No. 17/18 Gonzaga.
Coming into Sunday's contest, the Cougars had been a perfect 4-0 on Friel Court, but a fast start by the nationally-ranked Bulldogs on both ends of the floor sank any hopes of extending the WSU homecourt winning streak. Despite the loss on Sunday, the Cougs remain a game over the .500 mark on the season at 5-4. All four Washington State losses this season have come against teams ranked inside the top-20 of both national polls.
The trio of Borislava Hristova, Chanelle Molina and Jovana Subasic each recorded double-digits in the scoring column for the second-consecutive game for the Cougs.
Hristova paced WSU with a team-best 15 points, which was aided by a personal 7-0 run late in the fourth. Molina, who played all 40 minutes against Gonzaga this afternoon, chipped in 12 points to go along with a team-high five assists, while Subasic tied her career-high with three 3-point field goals en route to an 11-point effort off the bench.
Washington State shot 30.8 percent from the field on the afternoon, while Gonzaga hit 49.2% of their shot attempts from the floor. The Cougars were cold from behind the arc all game, as they posted a season-low 17.6% (3-of-17) from downtown.
Gonzaga opened the contest scoring 11 of the game's first 15 points to jump out to an 11-4 lead at the 3:46 mark of the first quarter. Washington State closed the gap to three points at 16-13 after long Hristova, but the Bulldogs closed the frame on a 6-0 run to extend their lead to 22-13.
GU opened the second by scoring eight of the stanza's first 10 points to double up Washington State at 30-15. That would be as close as the Cougars would get for the remainder of the contest, as Gonzaga led by as many as 29 points before collecting the 23-point victory over WSU.
Washington State will be back in action next Sunday, Dec. 15, when they close out its three-game homestand with matchup against UC Irvine. Tip-off from Beasley Coliseum is set for 4:30 p.m. PT and will air live on the Pac-12 Network.
COUG QUOTES
Head Coach Kamie Ethridge on Today's Performance: "I think we played a better team than us today. Gonzaga is built great, they have an unbelievable post presence, and they surround them with great shooters. They've got very versatile players that can handle the ball is certain spots of the floor that make them hard to guard. We put ourselves in a hole by having a lot of turnovers in the first half. We're kind of the opposite of them right now, we don't know where points are coming from. (Gonzaga's) defense made it really hard on Bobi and Chanelle, and its hard for us to manufacture enough points to compete with as solid of a team as Gonzaga is."
COUG NOTES
- With the today's loss, Washington State falls to 5-4 on the year and they've now dropped four-straight contests to Gonzaga. WSU still holds the all-time advantage over the Bulldogs at 20-11.
- All four of WSU's losses this season have come to teams ranked inside the Top-20 of both the USA Today Coaches Poll and the Associated Press Poll
- Today's attendance of 1,332 fans at Beasley Coliseum marks a new season-best figure in attendance for Washington State
- Junior Jovana Subasic tied her career-high in 3-point field goals this afternoon en route to an 11-point outing off the bench. She previous set her career-high of three 3-pointers back on Jan. 4, 2019 at Oregon State, while the 11 points gives the Sabac, Serbia native back-to-back games scoring double-digits.
- Senior Borislava Hristova extended her double-digit scoring streak to three-consecutive games with a 15-point outing against Gonzaga. The forward is now 95 points away from breaking WSU's all-time scoring record of 1,967 points.
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