Washington State found solace on the road Tuesday, when they defeated the Seattle University Redhawks 81-72 at the Connolly Center.

The win was the first to count toward WSU’s regular season record (1-1, 0-0). Head Coach June Daugherty and the Cougars started their four game road-trip off by holding off the Redhawks (0-2, 0-0), late.

The Cougars held Seattle University scoreless for just over three minutes after the Redhawks jumped out to an early 3-0 lead. During this time, the Cougars went on a 10-0 run and got a little breathing room in their non-conference game.

The Cougars continued to stifle Seattle’s shooters for the first half of the opening period. At the 12:42 mark of the opening half, WSU forced a Seattle timeout thanks, in part, to a 21-4 scoring run.

Scoring came in bunches for WSU, which was led offensively by guards sophomore Lia Galdeira and junior Tia Presley. They scored 19 and 16 points respectively.

SU did have answers throughout, however, led mostly by senior forward Kacie Sowell. She had a team-high 17 points to go along with her eight rebounds, three steals, block and assist.

Turnovers were prevalent on both ends of the floor Tuesday, with both teams tallying 17.

WSU did win the rebounding battle, which came as a relief to Daugherty who said she planned to work with her team on rebounding during Monday’s practice. The Cougars out-rebounded Seattle 52-40 and junior center Shalie Dheensaw, senior forward Sage Romberg and sophomore forward Mariah Cooks all chipped in to the Cougars efforts with eight boards a piece.

Despite shooting just 37 percent from the field, WSU had four scorers finish in double digits. Galdeira and Presley were joined by Romberg and Cooks who each contributed ten points to WSU’s effort.

Defensively the Cougars also frustrated SU from downtown. The Redhawks shot a dismal 16 percent from beyond the arc, while the Cougars had a stronger effort, converting on 29 percent of 3-point field goal attempts.

The Cougars also forced 13 steals and were led by Romberg who tallied six steals on the night.

SU generated some late game drama in the final seven minutes of action as the Cougars were up by 14 when Redhawks Head Coach Joan Bonvicini called a timeout to rally her team.

SU attempted to mix in a variety of pressing schemes to mount a comeback on the Cougars and found some success, cutting WSU’s lead to just six twice with less than two minutes to play.

However, in the end the Redhawks effort fell short. Free throws and an offensive rebound by Tia Presley sealed the game for the Cougars, who scored three unanswered points to cap their first victory of the season.