WSU women’s basketball lost to University of California Los Angeles 79-71 after the Cougars held a 20-13 lead after the first quarter.

Interim Head Coach Mike Daugherty said the team played well, despite the loss.

“First quarter was our best quarter of the year,” Daugherty said. “I think that’s a really good basketball team we played tonight. The most athletic team we’ve seen all year. Very long, very quick, very athletic. I think we did some really good things.”

Redshirt sophomore forward Borislava Hristova had 25 points for the Cougars. Bruins’ senior guard Jordin Canada led her team with 19 points.

Bruins redshirt junior forward Lajana Drummer was one of two players for UCLA with a double-double. Drummer had 10 points and 14 rebounds. Senior forward Monique Billings was the other Bruin with a double-double. She finished the night with 15 points and 15 rebounds.

WSU was outrebounded 51-29. UCLA was able to pick up 21 offensive rebounds to WSU’s nine. The offensive rebound resulted in 19 second-chance points.

“They’re a really athletic team as you can see and we can’t let them hang around under the basket,” Hristova said.

Daugherty said there were times the team had a height disadvantage, which resulted in the rebounding deficit.

“They went over the top of us several times where we were in position. We were in position, and they probably got 10, 12 inches of reach on us. I think that’s why the stat is the way it is,” Daugherty said.

Sophomore guard Chanelle Molina saw improvement on offense for the Cougars, but there’s always room for more.

“I feel like our offense got better since last game. Everyone was cutting, some crispy passes here and there. There’s definitely a lot more to improve on offense too. We did an efficient job tonight but we could do a lot better,” Molina said.

Hristova also felt the team played well in the first half, but gave up too many rebounds from that point on.

In the second half, the Cougars shot one for 10 on three-point attempts after shooting four of eight beyond the arch in the first half.

“It was just us not shooting as efficient in the first half. There’s not really an excuse or anything they did to affect that. Just got to get more reps up in practice and knock those down next time,” Hristova said.

Daugherty said he hopes the team realizes that they can compete with anybody after taking No. 13 UCLA down to the wire.

“I’m hoping what the team takes away from this, is that we can play with a top-10 team in the country. That we can play with anybody in this conference,” Daugherty said. “We gave them all they can handle. We need to take the next step, where we win some of these close games.”

WSU will face University of Arizona at 5 p.m. Friday in the McKale Center. The game can also be seen live on Pac-12 Networks.