The doctor could not have prescribed a better cure for the women’s basketball team. After suffering three losses in a row — the last two received at home via some terrible offensive performances — the Dawgs couldn’t ask for more than Saturday’s opportunity to feast on the lowly Washington State Cougars. Even the Husky freshmen see the 1:30 p.m. contest at Hec Edmondson Pavilion as a great chance to right their sinking ship.

“Let’s make it 23,” said freshman Laura McLellan, referring to the Huskies’ 22 consecutive victories in the cross-state rivalry. “I think we need every game right now. A win would be good to get our morale up. This is a big game.”

The Cougs (5-13 overall, 1-7 Pac-10) are last in the conference and have lost seven straight games. They haven’t won since their Pac-10 opener with Oregon State on Dec. 21. They haven’t won at Hec Ed since 1993.

“It’s certainly a game we want to win, coming off of three losses,” said freshman Sami Whitcomb. “Any rivalry is great to be a part of. I’m just looking forward to playing in the exciting environment with everyone really pumped to play.”

Washington (12-7 overall, 5-3 Pac-10) is still in third place in the Pac-10 after its recent slide, and it has the No. 2 scoring offense and is No. 2 in turnover margin as well. Despite the losses, the Dawgs still are the No. 1 offensive rebounding team in the conference.

“People will inevitably start up,” Whitcomb said. “We have a lot of talent on this team. We just can’t try and do it by ourselves.”

Whitcomb said the cold shooting that took them out of their last two games is something the Huskies have to learn how to control.

“For those games, it was a matter of, more than ever, taking good shots,” she said. “We got anxious because they weren’t falling right away and then later we started to force. We can’t decide that’s when we want to take over.”

McLellan agreed.

“We weren’t taking bad shots, but good shots,” she said. “I think we just need to be more patient and run through our offense. When we run through and get easier inside shots, then our outside shots will start falling.”

If rivalry isn’t enough to invigorate the Dawgs’ lifeless attack, maybe technology will help. Saturday’s game will be the debut of a new video board system on the main scoreboard. All four faces of the display will have state-of-the-art video boards manufactured by Daktronics. The boards measure 7 feet 3, inches tall by 9 feet, 4 inches wide and weigh 850 pounds each. Instead of the Dawgs’ logo that appeared to be crying on the board during last week’s losses (dead lights altered the picture), fans will now get to see instant replays, highlights and other high-tech animation and video sequences during the game.

“I think it will just be fun,” McLellan said of the upgrade. “It will fire us up and get the crowd more hyped up too.”

The boards come in addition to an advertising ring that was installed directly under the scoreboard in mid-December.

Whitcomb said the board is a welcome addition to the building and that it will be great for the fans, and then joked that the replays are fine “unless I’m doing embarrassing things.”

The embarrassment of their two worst offensive performances in a row has got the Huskies anxious for the Cougs.

“We don’t need a win, but we definitely want one,” Whitcomb said. “We’re known for our pressure defense and we got out of that. There are just certain things like rebounding and setting screens that we’ve been good at that broke down those two games.”

Reach reporter Sam Cameron at sports@thedaily.washington.edu.