Washington State guard Johanna Tedder, left, throws the ball into bounds as she defends as Southern California guard Alison Miura during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game Friday, January 14, 2022 in Los Angeles.


Washington state couldn't dig itself deeper into the pit on Friday.


After the first quarter, the Cougar Women trailed 17-3 on the road against USC — a team that beat No. 4 Arizona on Sunday — but rallied to defeat the Trojans 71-63 for their first win of the new year. Of.


WSU (10-5, 2-2 Pac-12) shot 1 for 14 off the field in the first quarter, but made 8 for 12 in the second to cut the deficit to seven points at halftime.


Johanna Tedder and Ula Motuga combined for 19 of 30 points in the Cougars' first half, with the team's leading scorer – Charlize Lager-Walker – scoring two points on shooting 1-of-8.


Tedder scored a 3-pointer in the transition to put Cougar 50-48 for his first lead of the night with 2:03 remaining in the third quarter.


The Trojans (8-5, 1-2) took a 3-pointer lead from Bella Perkins to open the fourth quarter.


Lager-Walker scored five of his 13 points in the span of 1 minute to give WSU a seven-point lead.


Tedder led WSU with 20 points, and Motuga added 14, shooting 4 of 5 on 3-pointers. Both scoring totals were season's highs.


USC held a statistical advantage in field-goal percentage (40 to 38) and 3-point percentage (50 to 32), but the Cougars scored 10 more points on free throws and a 17-3 advantage in second-chance points.


The Cougars won their first game after beating California on December 31, rolling to No. 2 Stanford 82–44 on January 2, and losing against Arizona 60–52 on January 7.


WSU will be in Los Angeles later this week for an afternoon meeting with UCLA on Sunday.