WSU women beat Wildcats in Arizona

TUCSON, Ariz. – Freshman guard Lia Galdeira scored 12 of her game-high 21 points in the second half as Washington State posted a 60-50 victory over the University of Arizona at the McKale Center in Tucson, Ariz. Sunday.

Washington State improved to 8-13 overall and 4-6 in Pac-12 play with its third straight conference victory and its first road sweep over the Arizona schools since the 1994-95 season. Arizona had its record slip to 11-10 overall and 3-7 in conference.

Galdeira added seven steals and five boards while freshman guard Taylor Edmondson added 10 points and sophomore forward Shalie Dheensaw recorded six points to go along with career-highs of nine boards and five blocks. Freshman forward Mariah Cooks grabbed a career-high 10 rebounds while freshman point guard Dawnyelle Awa dished out six assists and recorded six rebounds.

Washington State held the Wildcats to 28.4 percent shooting for the game including a 23.5 percent in the second half. The Cougars scored 20 points off of 21 Arizona turnovers, tallied 20 fastbreak points and received 26 points from their bench.

“Very exciting way to cap a big weekend for our program. It’s always tough win on the road, let along sweep, in this conference and it was great to see everybody contribute again today,” WSU head coach June Daugherty said. “Lia (Galdeira) has responded well to Tia (Presley) going down and really took over in the second half. She played with so much energy on both ends and I thought everybody fed off of her today and that’s what got us going in the second half again.”

The Wildcats played well in the first half, hitting four threes and scoring 10 points off of Washington State’s 15 turnovers. Galdeira kept the Cougars close with nine points and six steals through the first 20 minutes.

Galdeira provided a couple highlights for WSU in the first period, delivering a no-look pass to redshirt-senior guard Katie Grad for an easy layup and coming up with a couple big shots to keep the Cougars within striking distance. Midway through the half, Galdeira made a steal and went in for an uncontested layup and then hit a three the next trip down that gave the Cougars their first lead of the half, 13-12.

Late in the half, WSU broke Arizona’s full court press and received a couple easy buckets by Dheensaw and Grad as the Cougars went into the break down one, 27-26.

Cooks opened the second half with a three from the right wing that seemed to spark the Cougars as they stayed within a couple points during the first eight minutes before Galdeira took over.

Midway through the half, Galdeira hit a three and later scored six straight points before freshman guard Alexas Williamson converted on a fastbreak with a layup. The WSU defense settled in, holding Arizona scoreless for seven minute stretch and Galdeira continued to attack on the offensive end. The Kamuela, Hawaii native added another three before Edmondson scored six straight to cap WSU’s 19-4 run, that finished with a 13-0 stretch and gave the Cougars a 56-43 lead at the 5:11 mark.

Washington kept its double-digit lead for the remainder of the game as Noyes hit two free throws and Dheensaw capped WSU’s scoring with another wide open bucket.

WSU will host USC, Friday at 6 p.m. and UCLA, next Sunday at Beasley Coliseum.