Nobody has been a more generous host than the Washington State
women’s basketball team this season.
The winless Cougars have handed out victories at Friel Court
like they were fliers on Bruin Walk, and have not notched a
conference victory in nearly two years.
UCLA (11-7, 6-3 Pac-10) will look to avoid ending that drought
and to break a three-game losing streak of its own when the Bruins
face Washington State tonight in Pullman.
“Nobody wants to be our first win,” said
Cougars’ head coach Sherri Murrell. “Down the stretch,
our opponents are making the plays to make sure they don’t
lose to us.”
Over the last two years, Washington State (0-17, 0-9 Pac-10) has
set the standard for ineptitude in women’s basketball.
Last year, the Cougars became the first Pac-10 team in history
to go through the conference slate without a victory, and the squad
has not won a regular-season game since defeating Portland State on
Nov. 26, 2001.
Although Washington State has at least been competitive lately,
the squad will be hard-pressed to snap its 41-game losing streak
tonight against UCLA.
The third-place Bruins are in dire need of a victory, and
crushed the Cougars earlier this season at Pauley Pavilion
93-51.
“We will definitely see how far we have come because that
was our lowest point,” Murrell said. “We just played
our worst. A lot of it had to do with what UCLA was doing but a lot
of it also had to do with us.”
The Bruins’ fast-paced trapping style forced 33 Washington
State turnovers in their first meeting, and the squad will likely
try to play an up-tempo game again tonight.
Although UCLA has an advantage on paper at every position, an
unexpected home loss to California on Sunday has taught the squad
not to look past any opponent.
“Since we have lost a few games in a row, we have to go in
very focused and ready to play for 40 minutes,” UCLA head
coach Kathy Olivier said. “We just have to make sure that we
take care of business.”
With a pair of road games against second-place Washington and
surging USC on the horizon, the Bruins run the risk of having their
entire season unravel if they falter in Pullman.
“We can’t afford to have as many lulls as
we’ve had in the last few games,” Olivier said.
“We are going to have to be ready to go on the
road.”