In Case You Missed It ...
SALT LAKE CITY –  With a handful of chances to tie or take the lead in the final minutes, Washington State (9-18, 4-12) could not get the shots to fall when needed as Utah (20-8, 9-7) held on for a 75-67 win Sunday afternoon. Down by as much as 12 late in the third quarter, the Cougars mounted a quick strike counter attack to claw their way back into the game. Led by
Borislava Hristova, WSU would put together a 10-2 run in a two minute span that closed out the third and began the fourth. The Cougars would add a 7-0 run minutes later that cut the Ute lead to just two points with 7:06 to play as Hristova and
Chanelle Molina took over the game. With the game within reach the Cougars would have five different occasions to tie or take the lead but the ball would not cooperate. After missing a free throw that would have knotted the game at 62 apiece, the Cougs would score just one more basket in the final 3:16 allowing the Utes to pull away for the win. The late game rally was necessitated by the fact the Utes broke open tie game at half with a 17-4 run midway through the third quarter that put WSU into a double-digit hole.
Coach Ethridge Quote of the Game
"I just thought Utah beat us in transition the number of times on a make or a miss they just hustled it up the floor and get a wide open three. We gave up three of them on offensive rebounds. Three threes on offensive rebounds in the first half. Kind of cleaned that up in the second but in early offense we just don't run the floor hard enough. It's not anything other than we have got to be better. We've got to be better at trans-D. It is the thing that I think beat us tonight. Again, I think 5-on-5 we did a good job on them, did some good things defensively. Transition they killed us and it was the difference in the game."
Moments of the Game
Things You Need To Know
- The Cougs dropped both ends of season series with the Utes for the second consecutive season. WSU finished 1-8 on the road in conference play after playing its final road game of the regular season.
- Borislava Hristova scored a team-best 22 points as the redshirt-junior posted her 14th 20+ point game of the year, 3rd most in WSU single season history. She scored 18 of her 22 in the second half. She has gone for double-digits in 26 of 27 games this season. She added five rebounds and three assists.
- Chanelle Molina ended her day with 14 points while adding four rebounds and four assists. Molina became just the fourth Cougar in program history to play 1,000 minutes in a season at the eight minute mark of the first quarter.
- With 37 minutes played in the game, Chanelle Molina ran her season total to 1,029 minutes, tying Tia Presley's 2013-14 season for the all-time minutes played record. Presley played 1,029 minutes in 34 games where as Molina has played 1,029 minutes in 27 contest.
- The Utes were led by the career day out of Kiana Moore who scored 26 points including hitting 6-of-9 from deep, one off of the school record of seven three-pointers in a game. Megan Huff, playing in her final home game, ended the day with 25 points and 12 rebounds.
- For the game, the Cougs outshot the Utes, 47.3%-to-44.4% but Utah hit 10-of-28 from deep while the Cougs finished 7-of-15.
- The Cougs return home for the final weekend of the regular season beginning with a tilt against No. 7 Stanford Friday, March 1. The game is scheduled for 7 p.m. on the Pac-12 Network.
