A big conference win for the women, but an ugly loss at the buzzer for the men.
In another night of doubleheader action, the Washington State Cougars women’s basketball team emerged victorious while the men suffered a devastating loss on a buzzer-beater in overtime.
The women’s team went down to Moraga, California, and took down the St. Mary’s Gaels, 66-57, improving to 5-1 in WCC play. Ele Villa and Jenna Villa combined for 30 points in the winning effort. Up in Pullman, however, the vibes couldn’t be more opposite. The men’s team trailed by as much as 12 to the Pacific Tigers, who hadn’t won a WCC game since February 25th, 2023. After storming back and sending the game to overtime, the Cougars held a five-point lead with under a minute to play before the Tigers made a rally of their own. With 2.6 seconds remaining and trailing by two, Lamar Washington finished off his career night with a game-winning three-pointer, giving him 40 points on the night and the Tigers first conference win in 684 days.
It was business as usual for Kamie Ethridge’s squad, getting another win against a St. Mary’s team, who, while off to a solid start in conference play, isn’t expected to be much of a threat in the WCC. They didn’t make it easy on themselves, though.
The Gaels shot well in the first half, knocking down over half their shots and getting solid production from their bench, who scored 19 of their 36 first-half points. On the other side, WSU struggled to get the deep ball to fall, hitting just three of their 14 three-point attempts. Kyra Gardner had two of them on her lone two-shot attempts, and Jenna Villa contributed one of her own.
Ethridge and company’s half-time adjustments paid off early. After SMU scored the first points of the second half on a fastbreak bucket, extending their lead to seven, WSU flipped the script with an 11-0 run. Ele Villa, Tara Wallack, and Jenna Villa each drained a trey to give WSU a four-point lead. As a team, WSU shot 57.1% from the field while the Gaels came back down to earth with a modest 26.7% in the third quarter.
The Cougars kept their foot on the gas into the fourth quarter with an early 8-0 run to extend their lead out to a game-high 12 points and closed the game by hitting 6/9 shots from the charity stripe to close out their fourth conference win on the young season.
As the women’s team celebrated their win, the men’s team was fighting hard just to stay in the game against the lowly Pacific Tigers. Though the Tigers led for much of the first half, WSU kept the game within six until a 10-0 Tiger run pushed their lead out to 12 and started to make Coug fans nervous. While the Tigers were shooting 60% from the field and hit half of their three-pointers in the first half, WSU’s 12 turnovers led to 16 of Pacific’s 48 first-half points. The Cougars also only made three of eight from the charity stripe in the first 20 minutes of play.
Though WSU was able to cut down on turnovers and improve their free-throw shooting in the second half, they couldn’t contain Pacific’s Washington. The junior from Portland, Oregon, torched the Cougar defense all night with 16 in the first half and 17 in the second. His efforts helped keep WSU at arms length, despite their halftime adjustments, as the Tigers held a double-digit lead with 8:20 to play. WSU finally began to break through with some clutch free-throw shooting to help chip away into the lead. A perfect 16/16 from the free-throw line in the second half helped bring WSU back all the way within one possession entering the final minute. Old friend Jefferson Koulibaly missed a three with 35 ticks to go, setting WSU up with a chance to tie or take the lead. Nate Calmese blew by his defender and had a lane for a tough lefty lay-up that he threw off the backboard just a bit too hard. Luckily, LeJuan Watts was right there to clean it up with a putback slam to tie the game at 84 all.
Koulibaly gifted WSU one more shot with a turnover on the ensuing Tiger possession. Calmese got a good look on the game-winning three-point attempt but hit back iron.
WSU’s hot free-throw shooting continued into overtime as the Tigers foul trouble started to catch up to them. The Cougars cashed all six of their first six free-throw attempts as Pacific’s Elijah Fisher and Koulibaly fouled out. With 97 seconds to play, Tomas Thrastarson headed to the line with a chance to push WSU’s lead out to six, but WSU’s streak of 22 straight made free throws with back-to-back misses. Thankfully, the Tigers didn’t take immediate advantage, turning the ball back over to WSU and putting Watts on the free throw line. Watts would hit the first but miss the second, putting WSU’s lead at five with 1:04 to play. Washington picked up points 33-37 with a layup, then two free throws after a Calmese missed three. Following Washington’s free throws to cut the deficit to one, the Tigers took 14 seconds to get a foul on WSU, putting Calmese on the line with eight seconds to play. Calmese entered the night shooting 74.4% from the free-throw line and had hit one of his three attempts in the game so far. With a chance to give WSU a three-point cushion before Pacific’s final possession, Calmese could only hit one of two.
After the ball was hit out of bounds by a Coug on the other, the Tigers had 2.6 seconds left to tie or take the lead. It was pretty obvious who the Tigers were looking for, Washington. As Washington came around a screen, Thrastarson tried to get around the screen to cover Washington in the corner, but tripped and fell, leaving Washington wide-open from the corner. Washington rose up and, for the 16th time on 22 chances, drained his shot. A game-winning three-pointer in front of his bench. Though the game clock didn’t run on the shot, it was ruled after review that the final play took at least 2.6 seconds, ending the game and Pacific’s 22-game losing streak against WCC opponents.
David Riley’s squad has impressed through all the injuries in their first 16 games but finally laid their first true egg. The three losses before came against fairly quality opponents, with Washington being the only head scratcher. But this goes down as one of the worst losses WSU has had in awhile.
Now comes the biggest test of the season for both squads. A date with the rival Gonzaga Bulldogs on Saturday. The women will host the Zags in Pullman at noon and the men will travel up to Spokane at 6 p.m.