BASKETBALL: Washington State women upset No. 2 UCLA 85-82 for highest-ranked win in school history

BASKETBALL:
Washington State women upset No. 2 UCLA 85-82 for highest-ranked win in school history

Sun., Jan. 28, 2024 at 6:56 p.m. Spokane Spokesman-Review

LOS ANGELES – The Washington State women’s basketball posted its biggest win in school history Sunday afternoon.

It also may have suffered its biggest loss, too.

The Cougars held off No. 2-ranked UCLA 85-82 at storied Pauley Pavilion.

They had to do so after their top player, senior point guard Charlisse Leger-Walker, left the game with 7 minutes, 30 seconds remaining in the third quarter with what was described as a non-contact knee injury. She didn’t return.

“If you’re asking me, it never looks good when you go down like that in women’s basketball,” Ethridge said. “It typically doesn’t ever end up well. You’ve got to be patient and figure out the next plans for her.”

Moments before the injury, WSU had its biggest lead at 52-32. The Cougars would give up all but one point late in the game, but two free throws by Bella Murekatete with 16.7 seconds remaining provided the winning margin.

UCLA had three attempts at tying 3-point shots, but Washington State survived as time expired.

Leger-Walker had 15 of her 17 points in a first half that saw the Cougars take a 46-30 lead into halftime. She made 7 of 9 shots from the field in 19 minutes.

The Cougars showed just enough poise in pressure-packed moments in the final 5 minutes.

Murekatete scored a team-high 20 points to go with seven rebounds, four assists, three blocked shots and two steals. Eleonora Villa, who took over point guard duties when Leger-Walker left, had 18 points and three assists and Tara Wallack added 14 points including 12 of 14 free throws.

Ethridge said an initial evaluation from a doctor at UCLA said Leger-Walker’s knee looked good, but it’s hard to be hopeful with how she was after getting hurt. Ethridge said Leger-Walker will have further evaluations when the team returns to Pullman.

It appeared Leger-Walker injured the knee on a breakaway layup attempt as she planted to jump to the basket. With a defender close by, Leger-Walker crumpled to the floor on her own, Ethridge said.

WSU, which lost 70-62 at No. 11 USC on Thursday, improved to 15-6 overall, 4-4 in conference. UCLA slipped to 16-3 and 5-3.

The Cougars had to dig deep to finish.

“I know how good they are,” Ethridge said of UCLA. “That’s a program changer when you do that (win). I loved how they competed. I loved our mindset.”

The Cougars took a 65-53 lead into the fourth quarter.

UCLA opened the final period with a 5-0 spurt, and the Cougars extended the lead to nine shortly thereafter.

But the Bruins chipped away, pulling within 83-82 when Kiki Rice, who led all scorers with 25 points, made two free throws with 18.9 seconds remaining.

UCLA led once early at 5-2. The Cougars held the lead for 36 minutes.

“I thought they were one of the more committed defenses all year as far as ball pressure,” Ethridge said. “It became a thing where we just tried to survive it.”

Now the Cougars must find a way to replace Legar-Walker’s contributions with two more challenges around the corner. WSU returns home Friday when it meets third-ranked Colorado. No. 16 Utah, which was upset Sunday by No. 25 Oregon State (91-66), is at WSU on Sunday.

Photos from WSU at UW women's basketball game in Seattle on Jan. 14, 2024, Cougars won, 72-59.

Seattle Times photos by Jennifer Buchanan: WSU women basketball beat UW, 72-59,
in Seattle on Jan. 14, 2024 

Column: Pac-12 has that rare chance in sports to go out on top

Column: Pac-12 has that rare chance in sports to go out on top

By Paul Newberry, national sports columnist,
Associated Press, January 5, 2024

In sports, going out on top is a rarity indeed.

John Elway walked away after two straight Super Bowl titles. Bill Russell called it a career on the heels of his 11th NBA championship in 13 seasons. Heavyweight champ Rocky Marciano escaped the ring without a loss on his resume.

But it’s far more common to hang on for one game too many, one season too long.

In that sense, the Pac-12 will be leaving with its head held high.

This was not the path it would’ve chosen, of course. Head-in-the-sand decisions, bungled negotiations and an insatiable quest for the almighty buck spelled doom for the “Conference of Champions,” which stunningly collapsed into a heap like a game of Jenga.

Still, with its forced demise lurking right around the corner, the Pac-12 has a chance to add one more football title to its legacy.

Nothing personal, Michigan, but it’s hard not to pull for the Washington Huskies in the national championship game Monday night — if for no other reason than to put a fitting capper on this season of chaos.

Seriously, what would be a more appropriate way to close out this latest round of realignment frenzy than awarding the national title to a conference that will be snuffed out in a few months as all but two of its 12 members bolt for greener financial pastures?

Next season, Washington will be competing in the Big Ten, becoming an out-of-place, regular-season rival to the Wolverines, the team they’ll be facing for the title in Houston.

“Certainly they’re on our schedule a year from now and it’s a whole different deal that we’ll be involved with as far as a new conference,” Huskies coach Kalen DeBoer said. “I think this year, where we’re at right now in the season, this is all about really us representing the Pac-12 and going to win a national championship for our program and finishing off this season for this group of guys that have worked really hard.”

Indeed, let’s put the eulogies on hold for just a moment.

Given its storied past, the Pac-12 is deserving of one last celebration before being swept into the dustbin of other dearly departed leagues such as the Southwest Conference and Big Eight.

This is a conference that has claimed at least a share of nine national championships in the poll era — with a chance to make it 10. This is a conference that produced a dozen Heisman Trophy winners. This is a conference that became synonymous with the granddaddy of all postseason games, the Rose Bowl. This is a conference that gave us some of college football’s most memorable moments — and maybe a few more before it’s done.

Soon enough, the tears will flow. There will surely come a time when we realize what’s been tossed aside — the traditions, the history, the uniqueness of the West Coast style — but it’s far too late to reverse course now. There’s no chance of salvaging some degree of sanity amid all the piles of money.

Southern Cal and UCLA got the ball rolling with their stunning joint decision to move to the Big Ten. They would soon be followed by Washington and Oregon, the league’s two powerhouse teams this season.

Colorado, Arizona, Arizona State and Utah defected to the Big 12, while Stanford and Cal desperately accepted a downright ludicrous offer to join the Atlantic Coast Conference, way on the other side of the country.

That left Oregon State and Washington State as the Pac-12’s only holdovers, largely because no other Power Five league wanted them. While those two lonely schools have vowed to carry on in some fashion, they would seem to have few options beyond fashioning some sort of merger with a second-tier league such as the Mountain West.

Even if the Pac-12 name carries on in some fashion, it will be a pitiful shell of the proud league it once was.

Sadly, the conference’s demise arrived during a season when it recaptured much of its gridiron glory after years of irrelevance.

Colorado’s new coach, Deion Sanders, hogged the early headlines. Nine of the league’s 12 schools were ranked in The Associated Press Top 25 at some point during the campaign. Washington swept through a perfect season to capture the league’s first berth in the College Football Playoff since 2016. Oregon — with its only two losses both to the Huskies — also landed a major bowl bid. Six other schools received postseason berths.

With one game remaining, the biggest one of all, the Pac-12 has a 5-3 mark during bowl season — the best winning percentage of any league.

DeBoer talked of the gauntlet his team went through to emerge without a single loss. He hasn’t really had time to think about the impending move to the Big Ten.

“In all honesty, we’ve been so focused on the Pac-12, which was just a grind this year,” he said. “Just a tough schedule, each and every team being elite. I think that has prepared us for next year in a lot of ways.”

There will be a few more opportunities for the Conference of Champions to add to its trophy case before the lights are turned out.

The Pac-12 has four of the top nine teams in the AP’s women’s basketball poll. In baseball, Stanford will be looking to follow up on last year’s trip to the College World Series. The league is a powerhouse in softball, claiming three of eight spots in the 2023 Women’s World Series. And the Pac-12 always fares well in Olympic sports such as swimming.

But given how football was the driver of the whole realignment train, the game Monday night definitely feels like an ending.

Farewell, Pac-12.

You’ll be missed.