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The No. 7 seed Washington State women’s basketball team (16-15, 10-9 Pac-12) is taking on the No. 2 seed Cal Golden Bears (21-8, 13-5 Pac-12) in the second round of the Pac-12 Tournament at KeyArena today at 6 p.m. WSU is looking to avoid its sixth straight loss to the Golden Bears and advance to the semi-finals for the second time in three years.
The last time these two squads met -- a 75-68 overtime loss for WSU in Berkley, Calif. -- Washington State struggled to stop Cal’s ability to get the ball to Reshanda Gray in the paint, and she dominated the Cougs’ post players as she scored 43 points and grabbed 16 rebounds. Gray’s dominance in the paint stretched Washington State’s already thin front line as Shalie Dheensaw, Hana Potter, and Mariah Cooks spent the majority of the game in foul trouble.
For the Cougs to advance, the team is going to have to limit the number of fouls that they commit. In the OT loss in Berkley, the Cougars actually outplayed Cal but the Golden Bears went to the free throw line 30 more times than WSU did. Those free throws were the primary reason that Cal was able to win that game.
On the offensive end of the court, the Cougs started out hot in the first half (they shot 42.1 percent from the field); but cooled down in the second half (the team shot 26.3 percent from the field), and then became ice cold in the overtime period (14.3 percent from the field).
Washington State needs to not go into panic mode during crunch time. The Cougars need to settle down, pass the ball, and try to open up the Cal defense. When WSU is able to run its ball movement offense, the Cougs usually end up putting points on the board.
Senior Sage Romberg is seven points away from 1,000 career points; she scored six against Oregon on Thursday.
Tipoff: 6:00 pm
Location: Key Arena
Radio: KUGR.org*
TV: Pac-12 Networks
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