WSU women’s basketball surrendered an 8-0 run to University of Southern California late in Friday’s game, ultimately leading to a 73-72 loss to the Trojans.

Prior to giving up the lead, WSU (9-12, 2-7) had control of the game for over 24 minutes. USC (14-6, 4-5) led for a

lmost nine minutes. The game was tied nine times and the lead switched hands on 12 occasions throughout the night.

WSU redshirt sophomore forward Borislava “Bobbi” Hristova had a team-high 16 points. USC senior forward Kristen Simon had a double-double with 24 points and 13 rebounds and Trojans junior guard Aliyah Mazyck had a game-high 25 points.

WSU senior guard Caila Hailey said the team struggled to slow down the Trojans’ duo all night.

“I think they were really aggressive,” Hailey said. “They attacked, they found good looks, and they caught us when we were sleeping defensively. I think that’s when they got their easy buckets.”

WSU responded to USC’s late run with a three-pointer by senior guard Pinelopi “P” Pavlopoulou, which cut the Trojan lead to 73-72 with 44 seconds remaining.

Pavlopoulou had also hit a three-pointer in the middle of the third quarter that ended an 11-6 run

by USC. The shot gave the Cougars a 45-42 lead with 4:34 remaining in the third quarter.

“We just needed the points, so I was the one taking those shots. I got passes from my teammates, they got me open and I was fortunate enough to make them at that point,” Pavlopoulou said.

With 17 seconds remaining, USC sophomore guard Minyon Moore missed a layup to give the Cougars a chance to win the game. Interim Head Coach Mike Daugherty called a timeout with six seconds remaining to discuss the game-plan.

After the timeout, no foul was called on USC after Hristova ended up in the seats due to contact from a Trojan player. WSU would fail to attempt a shot before time expired.

Daugherty said his team didn’t execute the play and the refs didn’t call a foul when there was one.

“The thought process was to run ‘Bobbi’ off the screen, put ‘P’ in the corner, catch the basketball, turn and drive, kick it to ‘P’ if ‘Bobbi’ wasn’t open or throw it inside. Unfortunately, [USC] tackled Bobbi as she got near the sideline,” Daugherty said. “So basically, nothing that we had planned on happening, happened.”

WSU had 17 turnovers resulting in 26 points for the Trojans. Seven of them came in the final quarter.

Daugherty said the Trojans put extra pressure on the Cougars and instead of passing the ball, the team tried to dribble out of the pressure. This caused the extra turnovers in the fourth quarter.

“I think we’re a tired basketball team. I think that’s part of what’s happening in the fourth quarter,” Daugherty said. “What happened tonight was the inability to overcome the tiredness, and still play basketball for four quarters. We’ve had this problem in several games, our fourth quarters have not been good.”

WSU will face No. 13 University of California, Los Angeles at 3 p.m. Sunday in Beasley Coliseum.