The Washington State women’s basketball team (11-4 overall, 1-3 PAC) displayed efficient dominance over the Washington Huskies (9-5 overall, 1-3 PAC) as WSU defeated UW at home, 66-52.
Washington State star guard Charlisse Leger-Walker made it back to Pullman, after attending to a New Zealand family matter, to face the Huskies.
Unfortunately for the Dawgs, the contest was not riveting in drama or highlights, since WSU held the lead for almost the entire game.
UW managed to take the lead twice in the first quarter, but trailed for 30 minutes and 51 seconds of the 40-minute contest.
Statistically, it was arguably the Huskies worst performance of the season.
Overall, the Huskies made only 33.3% of their shot attempts from the field.
And Washington continued their struggles from three-point range, making three three-pointers but lofting 17 attempts from deep — 17.6% from three-point range.
On the other hand, WSU shot 53.6% against the Huskies defense.
Washington committed 15 turnovers against the Cougs, leading to 18 points off turnovers for WSU.
The two Cougars that should have been circled in red on the UW scouting report, Charlisse Leger-Walker (26 points) and Bella Murekatete (20 points), played mostly unaffected by the Huskies defense.
The 6’3″ Murekatete shot mostly layups all game hitting 62.5% of her shots (10 for 16 field), along with three blocks.
WSU guard Leger Walker shot 64.7% overall (11 of 17) and also recorded four assists and two steals; Leger-Walker also calmly waited until the second half to score 22 of her 26 points.
After Washington managed to end the first quarter tied at 14-14.
The second quarter began with a 7-0 run by the Cougars to lead 21-14; and WSU seemingly never looked back.
Later in the second period, the Cougars pushed their lead to double digits, 29-18, with three minutes remaining in the first half.
However, UW did manage to cut WSU’s lead to 31-24 by halftime.
Yet, by the end of the third quarter, WSU’s seven-point lead remained, 46 – 39.
WSU pushed their lead to 15 points in the fourth quarter and were not seriously threatened down the stretch by the Dawgs.
UW HUSKIES PLAYER OF THE GAME
By default, since Dalayah Daniels was the only Huskies player that scored in double figures with 10 points with two assists and two steals.
However, Daniels only had seven shot attempts (3 for 7) in 28 minutes.
The contest may have been more interesting, if the Huskies involved Dalayah Daniels more in the offense — instead of repeatedly hoisting and missing threes.
WSU scored 50 points in the paint — compared to only 26 in points in the paint by the Huskies.
It is unclear what made the Huskies think they should try to initiate a one-sided three-point shooting contest, when Daniels had scored six of her ten points in the paint.