Borislava Hristova becomes Washington State’s career scoring leader in victory at Cal

BERKELEY, Calif. – Borislava Hristova had 26 points and became Washington State’s all-time scoring leader in women’s basketball as the hot-shooting Cougars routed California 96-75 on Sunday.

Hristova ended the game with 1,986 career points. She surpassed Jeanne Eggart’s school record of 1,967 by making a contested jumper in the lane in the first quarter. Eggart’s last year with the program was 1982.

“I am very honored to have my name next to some of the greatest players that have played here at WSU,” said Hristova, a 6-foot senior from Bulgaria. “This record was broken by a village of people, and I am thankful to all the coaches and every teammate I have had throughout my time as a Coug. Thank you to all of these people that helped make this possible.”

WSU coach Kamie Ethridge improved to 100-70 in six seasons as a college coach; she is 11-21 with the Cougars. She previously coached Northern Colorado.

WSU (8-7 overall, 1-2 Pac-12) put up a season-high scoring total against the Golden Bears (8-5, 0-2) and snapped a five-game losing streak in games against Cal.

Chanelle Molina had a spectacular game for the Cougars, scoring 28 points on 12-for-16 shooting. She added eight rebounds and passed for eight assists (against one turnover).

WSU raced to a 31-6 lead after one quarter.

“It’s unbelievable the way we came out and played in the first quarter,” Ethridge said. “It was beautiful basketball. When the ball goes into the basket like that, everyone feels good. Defensively, we were so on point and played with a lot of energy. We gave Cal some rope and that was bound to happen. They are hard to guard and hard to box out. They went on a run when we had to go to our bench (in the second quarter). I was worried about coming out of halftime after so many starters sat for so long, but we stayed poised and handled it well.”

WSU shot 61.9% from the field, including 50% on three-pointers (7 of 14). The Cougars limited Cal to 42.4% shooting, including 16.7% on threes (2 of 12).

Jaelyn Brown led the Golden Bears with 20 points.

Other games

• Mikayla Pivec, who is from Lynnwood, collected 16 points, 15 rebounds and eight assists for No. 3 Oregon State in a 72-60 victory over visiting Colorado.

Sounds exhausting . . .

“I do get tired, but you just don’t think about that,” said Pivec, a 5-foot-10 senior guard who leads the Beavers in scoring, rebounding and assists. “You think about how you can help your team on each possession.”

• Sabrina Ionescu scored 17 points to go with eight rebounds and seven assists to help No. 1 Oregon rout visiting Utah 88-51.

It was the worst defeat in terms of scoring margin for Utah since it started Pac-12 play in 2011.

• In a matchup of teams that entered the game undefeated, No. 10 UCLA beat No. 18 Arizona 70-58 in Los Angeles.

Michaela Onyenwere scored 18 points and added 13 rebounds for the Bruins (14-0, 3-0 Pac-12).

Former Washington Husky Aari McDonald scored 19 points for the Wildcats (13-1, 2-1).

• Cassius Winston had a career-high 32 points for No. 14 Michigan State in an 87-69 home victory over 12th-ranked Michigan.