The Cougs will now wait for Selection Sunday to learn their fate.
The reigning conference tournament champion Washington State Cougars were eliminated in the opening round of the Pac-12 tournament by the California Golden Bears in a 65-44 thumping.
WSU was outplayed on both ends of the court. The offense made just 30.5% of their shots, they were outrebounded 48-35 and simply couldn’t match Cal’s toughness and strength on the defensive end. Leilani McIntosh led the way for the Golden Bears with 19 points while Ugonne Onyiah feasted inside with 11 points and nine rebounds, five of those offensive.
“It’s just a domination in the paint and on the boards. 26 second chance points, it’s just like a mismatch. Long rebounds, but their guards pursued them and got them and their bigs pursued them and go them.” Kamie Ethridge said. “The more athletic team won and just a hungrier team won. They handled us these last two times pretty well and I’m disappointed in how we performed.”
The Cougs were able to keep pace in the first quarter, but a lackluster four point second quarter doomed them as they fell into a 16 point halftime deficit and ultimately could never recover as the Golden Bears led by as much as 23.
Despite the early worries of Cal’s interior getting everything they wanted, WSU proved they could hang around with Bella Murekatete scoring the game’s first bucket and Ele Villa scoring a pair of layups to knot up the score at nine.
Villa’s game tying layup proved to be WSU’s last field goal for six minutes as the game rolled into the second quarter. The Cougs field goal drought helped Cal begin to build an early double-digit lead. Villa broke up the drought with another layup, but Cal continued to pour it on, closing the final five and a half minutes of the half with a 10-2 run. Tara Wallack provided the only other points of the quarter with her own layup. The Cougs shot a putrid 2/14 from the field in the second quarter and missed all four of their three-pointers.
WSU tried to slug their way back into the game with a better shooting third quarter — hitting 7/16 shots from the field — but Cal immediately matched all but one WSU bucket to hold a 20 point lead entering the final 10 minutes.
The Golden Bears offense slowed down to open the last frame and WSU began to chip away, bringing the deficit down to 13 with still six minutes remaining. McIntosh quickly erased any dreams of a miracle comeback that the Cougs had with back-to-back treys.
This is a tough result for WSU who likely needed one more win to feel safe about their March Madness hopes. Even a close loss would have shown the committee that the Cougs were competitive in one of the deepest conferences in the nation. Instead, a blowout loss to a fellow bubble team on a neutral court is an absolute resume crusher.
Now WSU will have to wait and see if the committee will look past the drudging and focus on the strength of their resume from earlier in the season and their latest road win at Colorado to end the regular season.
