WSU lost to the Stanford Cardinal 94-65 on Thursday, as the Cougs have yet to notch a win against the Cardinal in the all-time series. WSU is now 0-75 against Stanford.
The Cougs struggled early in the first quarter, as the Cardinal forced turnovers in the first five possessions. Two of those turnovers were travels by guard Eleonora Villa. In that span, Stanford jumped out to an early 9-3 lead.
WSU closed the gap by the middle point of the quarter and finished down 21-15, not letting the game slip too far out of reach. Villa redeemed herself by the end of the quarter, tallying seven points in the quarter.
Early in the second quarter, the Cougs cut down the lead to just two on a pair of free throws from guard Marta Alsina. From there, the Cardinal quickly extended the lead to a comfortable margin for the rest of the quarter.
The attack barrage, especially from deep, began to wear down the Cougs’ defense and they could not get anything going on the perimeter themselves. Guard Astera Tuhina hit just one shot in the first half and forward Tara Wallack’s 11 points were not enough to spark the offense. Stanford went six for eight on threes in the first half and Santa Clara transfer Tess Heal went three of three for nine points in her debut at “The Farm”. The Cardinal finished the half up by 11 on the Cougs.
The themes of the second quarter would begin to extrapolate themselves in the second half for Stanford. The deficit remained steady for much of the third quarter, but the Cardinal went on a two-and-a-half-minute scoring drought and coach Kate Paye took a timeout with about three minutes left. Coming out of the timeout Stanford put on a shooting master class, going on a 15-2 run to end the quarter. That run included four three-pointers as well.
Paye’s team pulled away even further in the fourth, as WSU coach Kamie Ethridge pulled out Wallack early, and the freshman depth pieces began to make their way onto the floor. Stanford outscored the Cougs by 18 points in the second half in a victory that concluded with a near 30-point lead. The only time the score was tied was at 2-2 in the first quarter as Stanford proceeded to lead the rest of the way.
Stanford shot 70% from beyond the arc on 20 three-point attempts, one game after they set a school record for threes made in a game with 18 against Le Moyne. Heal finished the game perfect from three and scored 14 points. Guard Elena Bosgana threatened the Cougs with her driving ability, scoring 19 points with nine free throws. Forward Nunu Agara also had a strong performance as a three-level scorer, scoring 18 points with two threes to go along with eight rebounds and four assists.
Eleonora Villa led the Cougs in scoring with 19 points, including going 3 for 4 from deep. The team gave up 26 points off 17 turnovers and was outscored on the bench 39-21. The team struggled to control the tempo against their former Pac-12 foe and left Maples Pavilion with much to discuss.
The Cougs return to Pullman to face cross-town rival Idaho at Beasley Coliseum on Sunday.
