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PULLMAN – Sophomore center Andrea Lalum scored a career-high 25 points Friday night as Washington rallied from a nine-point deficit in the second half to beat Washington State 75-68 in a Pacific-10 Conference women’s basketball game.
Lalum made 9 of 18 shots from the field and 6 of 10 free throws to eclipse her previous high of 22 points, also against WSU earlier this season.
The Huskies (6-4 in the Pac-10, 11-8 overall) extended their winning streak against the Cougars (0-10, 2-18) to 14 games, but the outcome was in doubt for most of the game.
“Their pressure created problems with our timing,” Washington coach June Daugherty said. “We were uncharacteristic about taking care of the basketball. In the second half, Andrea (Lalum) came out and put the team on her back. She stepped up and played a great game.”
The Cougars led 33-32 at halftime, and extended their lead to 50-41 with 11:22 left in the game.
Washington then went on a 10-0 run over a 1:20 span, taking a 51-50 lead.
With the score tied at 55 with 8:34 left, Loree Payne scored four consecutive points to launch an 8-0 Washington run that gave the Huskies a 63-55 lead with 6:33 remaining.
Washington State managed to pull within a point with 2:44 left, but Washington pulled away, scoring eight of the game’s final 10 points.
“We always have struggled on the road,” Lalum said. “It’s a long bus trip over here. But we know we have to come out strong. It’s a challenge. We have to respond.”
Payne finished with 13 points and former Arlington High School star Kayla Burt had 10 for the Huskies, along with some key steals in the second half.
“We had a big run in the second half,” Payne said. “The team responded well to the adversity. Kayla (Burt) came up with some huge steals and layins and that got us going.”
“It was not a pretty basketball game by any stretch of the imagination,” Daugherty said. “But we talked about it at halftime and stepped it up. We’re going to take what teams give us defensively. Loree and Kayla stepped up big in the second half. A lot of our offense came off steals.”
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