Cougars claw back for win at Gonzaga
Tia Presley, Mariah Cooks and Lia Galdeira combined for 38 points Saturday afternoon as Washington State overcame a 14-point deficit to defeat Gonzaga 57-51 at McCarthey Athletic Center. Read story
Presley was asked what she was thinking when WSU fell behind by 14 points.
"That we're going to come back," she said. "We had so much energy and I knew it was just a bump in the road and we'd have to find a way to fight through it."
"I just knew my team wasn't going to give up, no matter what the score was."
Daugherty said the Cougars seized control.
"We made it turn our way," she said. "We were stellar on defense and in the second half we locked them down. Our defense and rebounding were stellar."
As for the 14-point deficit, Daugherty said the Cougars are always hard to predict.
"You don't know how they're going to respond," she said. "You have to remember, half of this team is freshmen and sophomores."
Graves took some blame for the outcome.
"I don't think I coached a very good first half," he said. "I tried to play too many kids and we lost some of our momentum and we lost some of our continuity.
"Give Washington State credit. They appeared and played like they wanted the game more than we did."
Some people reported seeing heated words between the coaches after the game. Daugherty said her team was just celebrating the win.
"There are a lot of Northwest kids (in GU-WSU games)," she said. "Obviously, Gonzaga has had a great deal of success the last five or six years and they do a great job with their program. It's always hard to play (at GU)."
Graves said only "normal stuff" happened after the game.
"We'll see if we learn from (the loss)," he said of GU's rare third home loss of the season. "I don't know. I don't know. I'd like to think we're a mature enough team to make the adjustments. If we're not going to get better, I tell you it's going to be a long year."