Thursday the WSU women’s basketball team accomplished the same feat for the third straight season: it beat the Cal Bears (8-11 overall, 2-8 Pac-10) to get its first conference win of the season and end a losing streak of at least 11 games.

The Cougars (5-10 overall, 1-9 Pac-10) put together its most consistent game of the season, beating Cal by a score of 79-69. The team had lost its previous 11 games and was the only school in the Pac-10 without a conference win.

“It feels awesome, said head women's basketball coach Sherri Murrell. "To be rewarded, to have that true encouragement in the left side of the column, it’s truly rewarding.” The game was taken by WSU early in the second half as the Cougars went from trailing by three to leading by 16. “They (the Cougar players) had been coming out flat (in the second half),” Murrell said. “They knew that we needed (to start fast).” While the Cougars started the second half hot, the Bears actually took off the fastest to start the game.

Freshmen center Jessica Lawson scored six quick points to open the game. But as the Cougars have done many times this season, the team rallied back, staying within reach on limited foul shots and a clutch three by Charmaine Jones.

With 9:29 to play, Adriane Ferguson gathered a tipped break-away pass and scored to tie the game at 18.

The next 4:49 would go back-and-forth as neither team led by more than three, but on three consecutive three-point baskets by Cal, the Bears went up by 10 with just more than three minutes to play before the break.

On an 11-to-four run, the Cougars had the Cal lead down to three by halftime at 42-39.

Only 3:10 into the second half, Kate Benz took a rebound and drew a foul as she scored on the putback. After completing the three-point play, Benz gave WSU a one-point lead.

The Cougars took the rebounding battle by a 6-board edge (40-36). Murrell said that played a key role.

“Defensively, I thought we did a good job,” Murrell said. “I think the thing that stands in my mind is the 40 rebounds.” The Cougars let games get away to USC and UW because of rebounding deficiencies, Murrell said.

Less than two minutes after Benz’s lead-granting basket, on the back of two three-point baskets by Ferguson and Benz, the Cougars took a 10 point lead.

The trio of Benz, Ferguson and Jones would lead the Cougars with 16 points each. Kristen Iwanaga and Leigh Gregory each scored 11 to lead the Bears.

With more than 12 minutes to play in the game, the Cougars were in the bonus. Cal was in the same position in the first half when it entered the bonus at the 7:15 mark.

The Bears would get the WSU lead down to six when Iwanaga made a layup, but that’s the closest Cal came to taking the game back.

“It feels great,” Benz, who pulled down 14 rebounds, said. “We’ve had so many games where we’ve come close. People keep coming to watch us because they know we’re going to win. People want to see confetti and they got to. It felt like a big relief.” The Cougars will not get to relish in the win for long. On Saturday, Pac-10-leading Stanford comes to Pullman. The No. 4 Cardinal, will take on the Cougars at 2 p.m. on Friel Court in Beasley Coliseum.

“We needed this,” Murrell said. “Stanford is just slaughtering people in the Pac-10, so this is a win we needed for our program, but especially since we’re going against Stanford.” Notes Thirty-nine first-half points and 40 second-half points for the Cougars came in for second and third most prolific halves of the season for WSU. The team scored 41 in the first half of a 69-39 win against Portland State on Dec. 3, 2004. WSU scored only 39 points total in two games this season (both in losses to Arizona State and Stanford).

Coming into yesterday’s game, the Cougars were 3-1 when they shot at or above 40 percent from the field. WSU made good on 44.4 percent of its shots Thursday.

Jessica Perry, a senior point guard, entered the game with 296 career assists. She recorded seven assists to become just the eighth player in program history with more than 300 career assists.

While WSU continued to struggle with turnovers, a problem Murrell called the story of the team’s season this week; the Cougars finished the game on the winning end of the turnover battle, 22-18.