Washington State Women’s took down the University of San Diego on the road in a fourth quarter nail-biter.
The Cougars played their second down to the wire game in a row. After losing to the Bulldogs by six, the Cougs took control and finished the job against the Toreros.
The biggest reason the Cougs were able to pull off the win was bench points. The Toreros scored nine bench points while WSU scored 27 bench points. Leading the charge from the bench was Malia Rudd who scored a career high 19 points, with six rebounds and shooting 75% from beyond the arc.
While Rudd did the heavy lifting for the bench unit, three of the five WSU starters scored 15+ points. Eleonora Villa had 15 points and five assists, Mackenzie Chatfield 16 points with seven rebounds and Charlotte Abraham scored 16 points and collected six rebounds.
The only reason the Toreros were able to keep up with the Cougs was because of Olivia Owens scoring 31 points, 12 rebounds and six assists. The Cougs could not stop Owens whether it was her driving to the rim, 3-point shooting or getting to the free-throw line. Another problem for the Cougs was Kylie Ray who chipped in 21 points and three rebounds. However, it was not all rainbows for Ray as she had six turnovers which was six times more than anyone else had on the team.
The Cougars 3-point shooting has been hovering below 30% all season but in their last two games they have shot over 30% in both. Abraham and Rudd did the majority of the heavy lifting from shooting beyond the arc as only one other player (Malvina Haziri) made a 3-pointer.
In the first half the Cougars jumped out to an early lead, scoring 25 points in the first quarter while holding the Toreros to 19, setting the tone. The halftime score sat at 43-40.
In the third quarter, Washington State continued to build momentum, scoring 22 points and maintaining a narrow edge, but the Toreros stayed right with them by matching that effort with 23 points. To end the game is when the Cougs set themselves apart and never looked back, resulting in a Cougar win 80-76.
