WSU women’s basketball lost 85-64 to No. 6 Stanford on Sunday afternoon at Maples Pavilion in California.

Head Coach Kamie Ethridge said messing up schemes, sloppy transition defense and not playing hard enough contributed to the Cougars falling behind early.

“It was disappointing how we started both halves, quite frankly,” Ethridge said.

The Cougars (7-11, 2-5) scored first on a layup from redshirt junior Borislava Hristova. The Cardinal (15-1, 6-0) would then execute a 12-0 run as every starter scored.

The Cougars trailed 29-13 after the first quarter. The team committed six turnovers and Stanford converted 13 points off of them.

“We just made too many mistakes, to really even give ourselves a chance in the first quarter,” Ethridge said.

Both teams struggled on offense in the second quarter as each had only scored nine points eight minutes into the quarter. Stanford would ultimately take a 44-26 lead at halftime.

Stanford senior forward Alanna Smith had 24 points and 11 rebounds at the half while WSU junior guard Chanelle Molina led the Cougars with 10 points.

The third quarter saw more offensive production from both teams, but WSU was unable to cut into Stanford’s lead. The Cardinal led 75-44 at the end of the third quarter.

In the fourth quarter, the Cougars cut into the deficit, but it was too little, too late, as Stanford handed WSU its fifth conference loss.

Molina led the team with 18 points and seven rebounds, senior guard Alexys Swedlund scored 12 and Hristova added 11.

Ethridge said when a program is trying to grow a team’s fight is important and she believes her team showed that against Stanford.

“We want to take on every challenge and see how we do against the very best in the country,” Ethridge said.

WSU returns home to host No. 5 Oregon 7 p.m. Friday at Beasley Coliseum.