After The Master’s College posted the first basket of Beasley Coliseum’s 2013-14 basketball season, the Cougar defense had seen enough.

The Washington State University women’s basketball team sprang into its hard-nosed press style defense, and senior forward Sage Romberg delivered WSU’s first basket of the season moments later. It was a three-pointer, which would prove to be the theme of the night as WSU knocked off Master’s College 94-47.

“We mixed up a couple presses tonight. Overall, it was a good start with our pressing scheme, but I think we can be a lot better,” WSU Head Coach June Daugherty said.

Early in the first half, WSU had a lot of looks from beyond the three-point arc, but many of the shots were just a hair off.

Despite the early adversity from downtown, the Cougars were able to recover by driving to the basket while allowing their defense to steadily quiet the Mustangs.

Last year’s standout freshman, now sophomore guard, Lia Galdeira, also provided a spark for the Cougars a third of the way through the first half.

Galdeira’s steal in the first half wasn’t an oddity. As a whole, the Cougar defense totaled 16 steals throughout the game.

After the Cougars knocked off the rust with about 12 minutes left in the first half, things started to flow out on the court. The Cougars’ play down the stretch sparked a nice beginning to the second half.

At the 15-minute mark, WSU had three players scoring in the double digits. Junior guard Tia Presley had 18 points, Galdeira had 14 and Romberg joined the duo with 10 of her own.

Presley responded well to re-joining the Cougars this season.

“I just tried to come out here and play my game and play like I never was hurt and it felt really good,” Presley said.

The Cougars pressed on in the second half, using a strong rotation to aid the fast-paced play as The Master’s College attempted unsuccessfully to match the Cougars’ tempo. WSU showed why their depth will be such a major weapon this season as they pulled away in the second half.

“As a coaching staff, it’s nice this year to have an experienced group,” Daugherty said. “It gives us a lot of confidence to be able to play anybody and I think we can play a lot of combinations as well.”

In total, Washington State had 11 players see time on the floor. The Cougars also saw their lone freshman get her feet wet in NCAA play. Ivana Kmetovska, the freshman from Macedonia, had some struggles early on but gained game experience in her inaugural season to American basketball. She returned in the second half and contributed a quality assist and steal. She capped off the evening of improvement with her first career NCAA points on a breakaway layup with 30 seconds remaining.

WSU continued a barrage from beyond the arc in the second half. More than halfway through, WSU had a 46 percent second-half three-point shooting percentage, spearheaded by Galdeira, Presley and Romberg, who combined for eight three-point makes. Down low the Cougars saw a lot of success rebounding on the block. Romberg had 11 of the Cougars’ 56 rebounds along with her 10 points. WSU out-rebounded Master’s College 56-36.

Romberg noted that the Cougars will still want to improve their stats on the board from Wednesday.

“I think we’re going to have to focus on our rebounding even more against Syracuse because they’re definitely going to be a lot better,” Romberg said.

Junior center Shalie Dheensaw and senior forward Brandi Thomas also checked in with strong defensive performances for the Cougars. While the Cougars held and eventually extended their 17-point halftime lead, the WSU defense reigned supreme. The Cougars held the Mustangs to just 21 points in the second half. Dheensaw led the Cougars with three blocks, while Galdeira led with five steals.

The Cougars’ offense contributed 51 points to the second half effort. Leading the way for the Cougars was Presley with 18 points. Daugherty and the team were proud of Presley’s performance.

“She always took the attitude I’ll come back better from this injury, and it speaks volumes for her to come back two months early,” Daugherty said.

Galdeira, Thomas and sophomore forward Mariah Cooks also contributed promising performances with 17, 12 and 12 points each, respectively.

Washington State will return to practice this week and set to open their regular season of play Nov. 10 when the team attempts to avenge last year’s loss to Syracuse.