“In the second half, I thought we were much more aggressive,” said head coach Joan Bonvicini. “I thought we were much more aggressive today [than Friday]. We need to rebound better but we had a lot of young kids in [the game] and we made a lot of progress. They’re a good team – they beat us tonight, but we need to take the positives and build on them and get better in practice this week.”
Ashley Ward (Irvine, Calif.) gave the Redhawks the early lead on a pair of free throws at 19:50, adding a third a minute later for a 3-0 opening lead.
Lia Galdeira evened the score with a three-pointer for the Cougars at the 18-minute mark, as she added eight straight points on a following layup and second three-pointer. Tia Presley added a jumper to give WSU the 10-3 lead at the first media timeout.
Over the next four minutes, Washington State went on a 15-9 run to lead, 25-12, thanks in part to five points by Galdeira and a layup and jumper by Hana Potter.
Kaylee Best (Seattle, Wash.) hit a three at 11:29 followed by back-to-back layups by Kristin Stoffel (Mill Creek , Wash.) to bring the Redhawks within nine, 25-16, by the 10-minute mark.
Washington State jumped back out to a double-digit lead, 30-18, at 8:06 following a pair of layups and a pair of free throws by Mariah Cooks.
After two scoreless minutes by either team, Sylvia Shephard (Alta Loma, Calif.) and Taelor Ross (Vancouver, Wash.) added layups to bring the Redhawks within six, 30-24, at 4:55.
Ross added a pair of jumpers with just over four minutes remaining in the opening half to bring Seattle U back within six, 32-26, but the Cougars jumped back out to a double-digit lead following a 7-2 run started by a Sage Romberg three-pointer at 3:27.
Presley contributed a set of free throws with 17 seconds remaining and Stoffel made two of her own with .3 seconds remaining before halftime, but WSU remained in the lead, 41-33, at the halftime break.
The teams traded jumpers coming out of halftime and the Cougars extended their lead to double digits, leading by as many as 18, 57-39, at 15:25 on layups by Galdeira and Presley.
Seattle U came back within 11, 59-48, at 11:42 on a layup and free throw by Kacie Sowell (Ventura, Calif.) but WSU jumped back out to an 18 point lead by the 10-minute mark of the second period on a pair of free throws by Alexas Wiliamson.
The Redhawks would go on a 8-1 run to cut their lead again to 11 at 7:59, a run sandwiched by layups by Wilma Afunugo (Plano, Texas) and Alexis Montgomery (Beaverton, Ore.) with a layup and pair of free throws by Sowell in the middle.
Romberg and Dawnyelle Awa would sink back-to-back threes just under the eight minute mark to put the Cougars back ahead by 17, 73-56, but the Redhawks would go on a 13-2 run over the next six minutes to trail by just six with just under two minutes remaining.
SU cut their lead to six two more times on a layup and free throw shot by Montgomery, but three free throw shots would seal the win for WSU as they came away with a 81-72 victory.
Overall, the Redhawks earned the better field-goal percentage (40 percent to 37 percent), but WSU led both from three-point range (29.2 percent to 16.7 percent) and from the free-throw line (64.5 percent to 60.0 percent). WSU outrebounded SU, 52-40, and led in steals, 13-8.
Sowell led Seattle U with 17 points, while Ward also scored in double figures for the Redhawks, recording 15 points. Stoffel scored a career high 10 points, also adding four rebounds and an assist. After WSU’s Galdeira scored 15 points in the first half, the Redhawks limited her to just four in the second half.
Seattle U (0-2) returns to action on Tuesday, Nov. 19 facing their second straight Pac-12 opponent, Washington, at Alaska Airlines Arena at 7 p.m. Stay tuned for all the latest on the team on GoSeattleU.com, by liking Seattle University Women’s Basketball and Seattle U Athletics on Facebook, following @su_wbb and @su_athletics on Twitter, and following su_wbb and su_redhawks on Instagram.