Washington State University women’s basketball team fell short to Stanford by eight points at Friday evening’s game. Eleonora Villa scored her 1,000th career point the same night.
Starting the game, the Cougs lost the tip off but came back with junior guard Mackenzie Chatfield getting the first basket for the Cougs. Offensively the Cougs played strong with switching defense and a full court press from Stanford. In the first quarter of the game the Cougs kept up with Stanford, each team going back and forth with scoring.
Freshman forward Malia Ruud started the game and put up nine points in the first quarter. Overall she finished the game with a total of 11 points, nine rebounds and a three-pointer. Head Coach Kamie Ethridge was impressed by Ruud’s development.
“She’s made really big strides and I love her confidence to be able to step out and take shots in a game like this and compete in a game like this,” said Ethridge.
Into the last half of the game junior guard Eleonora Villa scored her 1000th career points. According to the WSU athletic website, Villa is the 24th Coug to reach more than 1,000 points in their career and is currently sitting at 103 three-pointers and is only 30 three-pointers away from being in the top-10 of all time list at WSU. In total, Villa scored 10 points for the whole game.
When asked at the post game press-conference, Villa said she is happy but would have been happier if they had won the game.
“It’s something to be happy about and I just want to keep looking forward and keep going like this,” said Villa.
In the third and fourth quarter the Cougs did not let up on the defense and improved on their rebounding. In the fourth, the Cougs held Stanford to a 10-point lead but finished off the game only eight points behind.
Ruud said that their energy and communication is good on the floor, picking each other up after mistakes.
“That game was one of our better communications on defense, even though we do have areas to improve like everyone does,” said Ruud.
Ethridge said that they got beat in transition defense, beat on the boards and in turnovers the first three games. She said that those don’t take talent but that it takes talent to score the basketball and make the hard shots. Ethridge also said if those three areas become consistent they will always transition-D great, be better with the ball and always compete better with the ball then they can manage on getting better offensively.
“But I just want us to control those things that we can control. So that’s what we’re going to really keep focusing on as we, you know, again try to find some points,” said Ethridge.
The Cougs next game will take place at 4 p.m. Wednesday Nov. 19 at Beasley Coliseum against University of Oregon.
