A career high from Tara Wallack gets WSU out of their losing skid.
The Washington State Cougars snapped their five game losing streak with a resounding 73-46 thumping of the Arizona State Sun Devils on Sunday afternoon.
Canadian junior Tara Wallack led the way with a career high 23 points and WSU (16-11, 5-9 in Pac-12) cashed 10 triples in the win. The Cougs never trailed in the game despite a valiant effort from ASU (11-15, 3-11) in the second quarter, using a 13-4 run to tie the game at 21. The Sun Devils used an 8-2 run in the third frame to again tie the score with 6:12 remaining, but that would be as close as they would get the rest of the game.
WSU let out their five game aged frustration unleash in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Sun Devils 27-7 and holding them to just 2/11 from the field while forcing six turnovers. Ele Villa scored seven of her 17 total points in the final frame.
Finally, the Cougs can rest a little easier knowing their longest losing streak since they lost eight in a row to end the 2019-20 is over.
With four games remaining on the schedule, WSU now sets its sights on finishing the season strong and grabbing as high of a seed as possible entering the Pac-12 tournament. Though WSU has already been eliminated from a possible first-round bye as they trail the team in fourth, the Colorado Buffaloes, by five games.
As it pertains to their tournament chances, Charlie Creme of ESPN has WSU in his last four byes and a 10 seed and Connor Groel of CBS has them as a nine seed. So yes. despite losing their best player in program history to a devastating season ending injury and dropping four in a row, the Cougs are still alive to dance for the fourth straight season.
But, because this is the Pac-12, WSU’s final stretch is anything but easy. The Cougars return home to play the No. 9 Oregon State Beavers on Friday and the Oregon Ducks for Senior Day on Sunday. While the Beavers will be a tough task, the Ducks currently sit at the bottom of the Pac-12 standings with a 2-12 conference record. This game aligns well for a good Senior Day sendoff if WSU can take care of business.
From there, WSU gets on the road for the mountain road trip to end the regular season against the No. 22 Utah Utes and No. 8 Colorado Buffaloes.
If WSU wins the games they should (Oregon) and loses the games the games against the ranked teams, they’ll finish at 6-12 in conference, which should keep them at eighth or ninth in the standings. Currently, the California Golden Bears sit tied with WSU at 5-9, but have two of their last four against the lowly Sun Devils and Ducks. If they take care of business, they likely jump WSU, which won’t matter a ton as they eight and nine seeds will face off in the first round.
The team that could interrupt an WSU/Cal first round matchup would be the Arizona Wildcats who sit a game ahead of both teams at 6-8. The Wildcats and Bears square off this Sunday which very well could determine who gets the seven seed and very likely a date with either the Washington Huskies, Arizona State Sun Devils or Oregon Ducks. If the Wildcats stumble the rest of the way, they could fall into the eight seed.
WSU can still catch the seven seed, but need to upset at least one of OSU at home, or Utah or Colorado on the road and get some help. The seven seed also gets the bonus of likely not having to run into the Stanford Cardinal in the second round should you get past your first round matchup.
While WSU has built a decent resume thus far, with the win over No. 9 UCLA listed at the top, if they want to make it back to the dance they’ll likely need to take care of business against Oregon, play the ranked teams at least very tough and make some noise in the tournament. Sure, this team has looked competitive and has proved they can hang with everybody in the conference, but they need to prove that they can still be competitive even without Charlisse Leger-Walker to lead the way.
It’ll be up to their veteran core of WSU’s all-time blocks and games leader Bella Murekatete, senior Jessica Clarke, grad transfer Beyonce Bea and the junior Wallack to fight through adversity like they have done time and time again over these past few historic season.