Washington State spoils Colorado senior day, steals massive win 72-63

A seismic, season altering win at the regular season buzzer lifts WSU’s March hopes.

The Washington State Cougars grabbed a huge 72-63 win over the No. 13 Colorado Buffaloes in the regular season finale to revive their March Madness dreams.

Entering Saturday afternoon’s contest, WSU (17-13, 6-11 in Pac-12) was a bubble team on the outside looking in and lacking a signature win without their superstar Charlisse Leger-Walker to attach to their resume. Now they finally get one on the last day of regular season play against one of the nation’s best teams to keep their March dreams alive.

After they trailed by five with 2:56 to go, WSU put together an all-time rally to keep themselves afloat and steal the lead away on an Ele Villa three. With under a minute left and the shot clock winding down, it looked like Colorado would get a shot to tie the game down three. Instead, Astera Tuhina fired off a Caitlyn Clark like three from way downtown to ice the game away.

Without this win, WSU would be entering the conference tournament in desperate need of at least two wins in the conference tournament against Arizona and USC to get the committee’s attention. While there is still work to do to bolster a resume that has been falling apart the last month, getting this one today checks off a huge point on the to-do list.

WSU came out ready to prove they were up to the task of playing like their season was on the line. Ele Villa scored all eight of WSU’s first eight points with a trio of paint buckets and a pair of free throws to make it a 8-4 lead. Alex Covill capped the 6-0 run with a bucket, becoming the first other Coug not named Ele to get on the scoreboard. The Buffs answered back with an 11-4 run, bookended by Frida Foreman cashing a trey and a short jumper to give the Buffs their first lead of the game. Kyra Gardner handed the lead back to WSU before the end of the first quarter with a pair of free throws.

To open the second quarter, it looked like the Buffaloes had enough of the Cougars early efforts. The Buffs stampeded over WSU with a commanding 11-2 run behind five free throws from Jaylyn Sherrod to take a seven point lead. This was starting to look like how a lot of WSU games down the stretch had looked. Just not having enough firepower to overcome big runs. However, WSU wouldn’t let the Buffaloes lead grow any bigger than eight throughout the remainder of the half. Instead, WSU fought back with Tara Wallack, Bella Murekatete and Covill each knocking home buckets to keep the halftime deficit within a manageable five points.

The Buffs came out with another strong punch to take the early 10 point lead to begin the second half, but again WSU wouldn’t go down. Tuhina splashed a trey that lit a spark for WSU’s offense.

WSU began to counter each Colorado bucket with two of their own or a three pointer to slowly dwindle the lead all the way down to one. Beyonce Bea put WSU ahead with a pullup mid range jumper.

The lead wouldn’t last long though. Colorado tied the game with a trio of free throws 90 seconds later and Sherrod splashed a momentum killing three at the buzzer to put the Buffs ahead heading into the final quarter.

Yet again it looked like another turning point where WSU wasn’t going to have enough in the tank to overcome the onslaught of momentum the Buffaloes were riding into the final 10 minutes. But as this program has showed so many times over the past few years, they are still those resilient Cardiac Cougs that we have come to know them for.

Tuhina shifted the moment a full 180 degrees with back-to-back triples to snatch the lead right back and begin a heavyweight fight for the lead. Colorado answered with a pair of threes of their own as the teams traded buckets for the next five minutes. With 2:56 to go and the Buffs up three, Aaronette Vonleh looked to deal a huge blow to WSU’s hopes with a fast break layup after a WSU turnover to put Colorado up five.

For a third time in this game, the pressure was back on WSU’s to show its resiliency.

Needing an answer, Wallack drilled a bigtime three to bring the Cougs back within a possession. After Tuhina snatched away a steal to set up a possible game tying possession. Instead, Ele Villa went for the lead with a three that missed. But, right there to snatch up the offensive rebound was Wallack who kicked it back out to an open Ele Villa for another shot and she didn’t miss.

WSU got the stop they needed on the other end to set up another critical possession and their fifth year senior Murekatete delivered with a bucket inside to put the Cougs up three with 1:26 to go.

Out of the timeout, Vonleh tried to attack the rim, but instead, Murekatete drew the charge to give WSU a possible game icing possession.

Now, with their season possibly hanging in the balance, it all came down to one more chance to deal a colossal dagger into the hearts of Boulder, Colorado and lift up their postseason hopes in one flick of the wrist.

The Buffalo defense kept WSU from getting a good look for the entirety of the shot clock. With the shot clock starting to tick down under five, Bea passed the ball out to Tuhina who stood way beyond the three point line. With only three seconds on the shot clock, Tuhina heaved a deep three all the way from Colorado Springs. As the ball floated over Denver and back into Boulder, it found its way into the bottom of the east net and the dagger drove true. Cougs lead by six.

For the past month, this team has looked like a shell of itself. All the pieces but one that had made this team into a championship contender were still there, but they just looked flat. Without Leger-Walker on the court, the team lacked their identity and have struggled to find it again. On Saturday afternoon, they found it again.

Since Kamie Ethridge took over, this team has been known for being competitive, resilient and gritty at every opportunity. While they’ve flashed that at times, they just haven’t been able to hold it consistently for 40 minutes of basketball. But with their season all but hanging in the balance and one last chance to go out and prove themselves in a hostile environment, they delivered one of their best games of the season. Big shots from their next generation of ultra talented guards in Ele Villa and Tuhina, and their legendary veteran Murekatete coming up with a big bucket and heads-up play to draw the possession changing charge late in the game.

Now that they’ve found their identity again, can they carry that momentum into the conference tournament and shock the world like they did one year ago?

With the win, WSU locked themselves into the No. 9 seed for the Pac-12 tournament, setting up for a first round matchup with the California Golden Bears on Wednesday at 2:30PM.