WSU’s women team will look to lock in #3 seed, men looking to find any form.
It was a packed house in Beasley on Wednesday for Gonzaga’s first trip down south in over a decade, a rockus vibe that had not been seen in many years. David Riley said it was an opportunity for Washington State to show who they really are, and unfortunately, they did exactly that.
WSU only trailed by four points with 7:35 to go in the half and went into the halftime break down 22. When the floodgates open, there is no closing them for the Cougs. WSU got no help from the whistle (how Lejuan’s dunk wasn’t called a foul will forever be a mystery), nor from their own defense, which needlessly allowed wide open threes. That being said, they fought until the bitter end, but Gonzaga’s discipline and ball movement were far too much to overcome.
WSU has three games remaining, the next two of which are at home. Saturday they take on the Santa Clara Broncos at 3pm on CBSSN. The Cougs were running with SCU in California in their first meeting, but the Broncos opened up a big lead in the second half and never looked back. Ever since the first loss to Pacific, WSU really hasn’t put together more than 20 minutes of good basketball. From 13-3 to 16-12, things are really off the rails. Santa Clara offers a unique challenge of size combined with shooting. They can be inconsistent at times; however, they hung 100 in Spokane on a team that just held WSU to 28 in the first half.
WSU has lost any semblance of the team that started 13-3, and it doesn’t look like they are going to be able to get it back. To be fair, 10 of their losses come in Quad’s 1 or 2 (we know which two don’t), but it just hasn’t looked right for well over a month. ESPN analytics gives the Cougs a surprising 45.6% chance to win Saturday’s contest.
Over on the women’s side, life has been much better. Washington State is 12-6 in conference play and firmly in 3rd place in the WCC, which means they only need to win two games to get into the final of the WCC tournament (if it started today). Four of their six conference losses have come to the two teams ahead of them in the standings, Gonzaga and Portland. The two slips have both come on the road, so WSU should feel great about their chances to take care of business on Saturday.
Senior Day tips off at 11 AM and will feature only one honoree, Tara Wallack. Tara is what makes this team click. She is second on the team in points per game, first in rebounds, third in assists, second in steals, and the list goes on and on. Any statistical footprint this team has, Wallack is all over it. Her four years at Washington State have seen the most successful run of women’s hoops in school history, and her seniority has grown so as her role. Not only will the Cougs be looking to send Wallack off a winner, but more importantly, if WSU can secure the win, they will lock in the crucial three-seed in the WCC tournament.
Washington State’s women’s team hasn’t had a perfect year, but an extremely solid one. Lots of young talent headlined by a few veterans has them positioned very well to make a run in the WCC tournament. They will need to do so if they want to see postseason basketball this year, but they took the first-place team in the conference to OT, so anything is on the table.