This Cougar women’s hoops season was off to a historic 15–6 start.

A blowout 71-38 loss to the No. 2 team in the nation should not dampen anything for a WSU women’s basketball team (16–7, 6–6 Pac-12) that has already set a slew of program firsts and is off to one of the best starts in program history,

Despite the Cougars nailing only one successful shot in the first quarter (a Charlisse Leger-Walker 3-pointer), the Cougar defense did what they had to do to keep the Stanford Cardinal (22–3, 10–2 Pac-12) away from the basket.

However, poor offense erodes every other facet of the game as the Cougars quickly collapsed under the pressure of the Cardinal.

Stanford scored only 15 of their 71 points in the first quarter.

Right from tip-off, the Cougs came out of the gate playing scrappy and tough defense.

Before a single shot was not made until two minutes into the game as the Cardinal forced two turnovers and the Cougars forced one.

When Leger-Walker’s 3-point shot fell through the net, there was a glimmer of hope within Beasley Coliseum. Even when Stanford made it a 1-point game, hope that the Cougars could at least keep pace was still in the air. Then Stanford took the lead and held onto it for the remaining 35 minutes of the game and all was lost.

“We hold them to 15 points in the first quarter, we just don’t score the basketball. We have seven turnovers in the first quarter, we just didn’t give ourselves a chance to be in that game,” said Kamie Ethridge said.

The Cougar scoring was truly dismal. They shot 25% from the field compared to Stanford’s 50%.

Their leading scorer Leger-Walker scored just 8 points, with 3 coming off of the 3-pointer.

Wazzu got back to within two scores with about four minutes remaining in the first half following a pair of free throw attempts from Johanna Teder and Tara Wallack.

Teder finished the day with 3 points off of three free throws as she missed each of her four shots from the floor.

Bella Muraketete was 3-for-4 from the free throw line and made only 2-of-8 shots.

Lauren Glazier had the best game of her career to date, with 6 points and two offensive rebounds.

“I love Lauren and how hard she plays,” Ethridge said. “Probably deserves some more minutes from us and hopefully she’ll keep earning them and making a difference when she comes in.”

Halley Jones nearly had a double-double day for the Cardinal as she shot 46% for 13 points.

Cameron Brink and Lauren Betts turned in 10-point performances as part of the Cardinal’s balanced attack.

Following a humbling defeat, the Cougars got back into the win column Sunday when they beat California 70-60 to continue what could be their best season win-wise in program history.