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The Cougar women's basketball team ended its 36-game losing streak to in-state rival Washington with an 82-80 victory on Tuesday in Pullman.
Washington State took an early 10-point lead in the first half and managed to pull out the victory at the end of the game despite the fact that UW's star, Jazmine Davis, awoke in the second half.
The first half started off slowly for both squads as Washington and Washington State both struggled to make anything happen offensively. Both squads suffered from sloppy play and poor decision making in the first six minutes of the game. In fact the first points of the game came off of a Tia Presley shot that she was fouled (she missed the and-one).
After the under 12 media timeout the Cougs and Huskies began to pick up the pace offensively and the Cougs were down at one point 16-14. WSU responded by going on an 11-0 run that was started by back-to-back threes from Lia Galdeira and Alexis Williamson three pointers. Washington State took a comfortable 25-16 lead into a UW timeout.
The Huskies came out of that timeout and went on an 11-3 run that cut WSU's lead to five with two minutes left in the half. Washington's run came to an end when Galdeira stole the ball, charged down the court and then passed to Dawnyelle Awa, only to have Awa pass it back to her for the a layup to extend the lead back to seven.
At the end of the half Galdeira took on Davis one-on-one as time expired and hit a buzzer beater to extend WSU's lead to 10, 42-32, at the half.
A Galdeira three started off the half and increased WSU's lead to 45-32. The Cougs and Huskies traded baskets throughout the first four minutes of the second half. But the Huskies went on a 9-0 run after Tia Presley drew a reaching foul and then drew a technical foul for arguing with the official. Coach June Daugherty benched Presley after the foul.
Washington's run was helped by the fact that Davis started to wake up; in fact, her three pointer drew the Huskies within three and Chantel Oshar tied the game with a three of her own. Galdeira hit a two to take the lead by Davis took the lead right back with a three pointer. The Cougs started trying to force it and started making poor decisions on the offensive and defensive sides of the court.
While Galdeira continued to dominate the game offensively, the Cougs clearly missed Presley on both ends of the court. After a missed Taylor Edmondson layup, Awa tipped it back to her and Edmondson hit the jumper to bring the Cougs within one.
Shalie Dheensaw displayed the sweet stroke that she has worked on her time at WSU to give the Cougs a lead with about 10:30 left on the clock. After Davis hit a two-point bucket to bring the Huskies within one, Brandi Thomas hit a three to give WSU a 66-63 lead with 7:42 left in the game. But the big thing to come out of that series of possessions was that Presley came back into the game for the Cougs.
At this point the two teams began to trade buckets again, and neither team was really able to run away with the contest; the Cougs owe Dheensaw a major thank you, as she came into her own in the last ten minutes of the game. Dheensaw made several key put backs, on her way to a double-double (11 points and 14 rebounds).
Washington didn't start fouling until there was less than a minute left in the game. Sophomore shooting guard Lia Galdeira hit both of her free throws to give WSU an 82-78 lead, Jazmin Davis hit a two to bring the Huskies within two. Those were the last points of scored in the game.
Chantel Osahor's shot bounced off of the back board, to the right of the hoop, as time expired to secure WSU's first victory over Washington since February 25th, 1995.
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