SEATTLE – The Washington State University women's basketball team ventures across the Evergreen State this Saturday looking to get even with the University of Washington on the season, as the two teams take the court against one another for the second time in 13 days. Tip-off for Boeing Apple Cup Series game from the Alaska Airlines Arena is set for 12:30 p.m. and will be aired live on Pac-12 Network Washington.
WASHINGTON STATE (8-7, 1-2)
at Washington (10-4, 1-2) | Saturday, Jan. 11 | 12:30 p.m. | Alaska Airlines Arena
Live Stats | WSUCougars.com
Watch | Pac-12 Network Washington (Elise Woodward and Eldrige Recasner)
Listen | WSU IMG Radio Network (Steve Grubbs)
Game Notes | WSUCougars.com (PDF)
STARTING FIVE
-> Saturday's contest is the second of two Boeing Apple Cup Series games this season between the Cougars and the Huskies. Washington knocked off WSU, 65-56, in Beasley Coliseum back on Dec. 29, 2019 to open Pac-12 Conference play for both squads.
-> Washington State enters play with an 8-7 overall record and a 1-2 mark in Pac-12 games. Meanwhile, the Huskies stand at 10-4 overall in 2019-20 with a 2-1 record through three Pac-12 contests. Saturday will be the 98th all-time meeting between the two schools. Washington holds a 74-23 edge all-time, but Washington State has captured a win in three of the last five games played against UW.
-> The Cougars will be looking to capture back-to-back wins against the Huskies in Seattle for just the second time since 1980. Washington State collected a 79-76 victory over Washington in the last meeting between the two schools back on Dec. 30, 2018. WSU previously claimed back-to-back wins at the Alaska Airlines Arena with an 85-76 victory on Jan. 11, 2014, followed by an 83-72 decision the following season on Feb. 20, 2015.
-> Last Sunday at Cal, redshirt senior Borislava Hristova became Washington State's all-time leading scorer after making a contested fade-away jumper in the lane. Hristova ended up with 26 points against the Golden Bears to give her 1,986 points in her career, which breaks Jeanne Eggart's (1977-82) 38-year-old record of 1,967 points.
-> Hristova isn't finished breaking record yet in her final campaign with the Cougs. She needs just 14 points to become the first WSU player, and the 13th women's player in Pac-12 Conference history, to score over 2,000 points in their career. #BobiBuckets is also closing in on Washington State's all-time scoring record for either a men's or women's basketball player, as she needs just 18 points to break Isaac Fontaine's (1994-97) record of 2,003 points from the men's program.
LAST TIME OUT
The Washington State University women's basketball team strung together its best first quarter performance in program history last Sunday, Jan. 5, to collect a 96-75 road victory at California.
WSU opened the game with a 31-6 lead after 10 minutes of play against the Bears. The 31 points were the most-ever scored in an opening quarter by the Cougars, while the six points put up against them were the fewest the program has allowed to a Pac-12 opponent in the first quarter.
HAVE A WEEK, CHANELLE
Senior guard Chanelle Molina was named the Pac-12 Conference Player of the Week on Monday, Jan. 6, after averaging 27.5 points per game on a ridiculous 71.8% shooting from the field. The effort also landed her a spot on this week's NCAA Women's Basketball Starting Five.
Molina opened her week with a then-season-high 27-point performance at No. 4/5-ranked Stanford, where she shot 11-of-16 from the field. The Kailua Kona, Hawaii native followed that up with a season-best 28 points at California, where she knocked down 12 of her 16 shot attempts.
DYNAMIC DUO
Senior Borislava Hristova and Chanelle Molina come into Saturday's contest having scored 20-plus points each over their last two contests at Stanford and Cal.
The duo scored all but 10 points in Friday's, Jan. 3, loss at No. 4/5 Stanford, with Molina tallying a game-high 27 points, while Hristova chipped in 21 points. The duo outperformed that effort two days later over at Cal, as they combined for 54 points – Molina scoring 28 pts, while Hristova collected 26 pts – in a victory over the Golden Bears.
MAKING THEIR SHOTS
Washington State has been hitting shots at a high-rate from the floor this season, and it has put the Cougs inside the top-40 nationally in both field goal percentage and 3-point field goal percentage. WSU's 45.3% success rate ranks 30th in field goal percentage in NCAA Division I, while their 35.8% field goal percentage from behind the arc is 39th-best in the country.
SCOUTING WASHINGTON
The Huskies come into Sunday's matchup off a 77-56 loss at No. 4/5 Stanford. UW is 10-4 overall on the year, but have gone 4-3 at the Alaska Airlines Arena this season.
Amber Melgoza is the lone double-digit scorer (15.0) for a Washington team that averages 69.6 points per game. She has scored at least 16 points over her last four contests, which includes a 31-point effort in a 67-64 win at Cal on Jan. 3.
Defensively, teams are averaging 56.5 points per game against the Huskies on a 36.2 field goal percentage.
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