WSU women’s basketball (11-3, 0-1 Pac-12) dropped its final nonconference game to Auburn (10-2), 69-62, Wednesday at Neville Arena in Auburn, Alabama.
The Cougs shot a blazing hot 59% in the first half and led 32-26 at the break as Auburn made 32% of their shots.
The Tigers flipped the script in the third quarter, out-scoring Wazzu 20-9. Auburn shot 53% in the third quarter while WSU made three shots (3-for-12, 25%).
The Cougs found more success in the game’s final 10 minutes, shooting 40% from the floor and 57% from beyond the arc. However, the Tigers began the fourth quarter with a five-point lead and did not allow the Cougs to get closer than that until an Eleonora Villa 3-pointer made it a four-point game with 0:37 left.
The Cougs kept Auburn’s leading scorer, graduate student Honesty Scott-Grayson, scoreless in the first half. Scott-Grayson ignited the Tigers’ comeback by cracking the Cougar code, making 5-of-8 shots including two 3-pointers and 5-of-6 from the free throw line to total 17 points.
The third quarter is characteristically the strongest quarter for head coach Kamie Ethridge’s team. In both of WSU’s landmark wins this year (77-72 (OT) over Gonzaga, Nov. 9 and 87-67 over Maryland Nov. 23) the third quarter was the strongest overall quarter. WSU out-scored Gonzaga 21-17 and out-scored Maryland 26-13 in the third quarter of those wins.
In Wazzu’s final non-conference game of the year, two Cougs scored in the third quarter and only Charlisse Leger-Walker scored from the floor.
Three days removed from her second career-triple-double, Leger-Walker was one rebound shy of a third triple-double. The All-Conference senior scored 12 points (7 in the third quarter) with 10 assists and nine rebounds. Leger-Walker made 4-of-10 from the floor but missed each of her four 3-point attempts. She attempted half (five) of her shots in the third quarter.
Her 3-point percentage is sitting at a would-be career-low 18.6%.
Leger-Walker was one of three Cougs to be charged with four personal fouls each. Her fourth foul did not come until the game’s final seconds as she played a full 40 minutes.
Two days removed from a career-best 21-point performance, junior Tara Wallack drew four personal fouls and collected 4 points, making 2-of-3 shots in 31 minutes.
All-Conference senior center Bella Murekatete also drew four personal fouls, shooting the ball three times and scoring 4 points in 23 minutes on the floor.
The first quarter was another episode of the Villa show for Wazzu.
Freshmen Eleonora Villa and Jenna Villa (no relation) scored a combined 13 points in the game’s first 10 minutes. Eleonora scored 7 points (3-for-6, 1-for-2 from three). Jenna made both of her deep shots two days after the Pac-12 named her Pac-12 Freshman of the Week for her career-best 18-point and four 3-pointer performance in WSU’s 95-48 win over Houston, Sunday.
Eleonora shot 2-of-12 in the remaining three quarters and Jenna shot the ball two more times.
Auburn kept things close, trailing 10-9 at 4:17 mark of the first before The Villas combined for 10 points to give Wazzu a 20-13 lead after 10 minutes.
Sophomore Astera Tuhina paced the Cougars in scoring with 15 points. She scored 5 points in the second and 10 in the fourth quarter as the spark to the Cougars’ aspiring comeback.
Tuhina shot 5-for-9 with a 3-for-6 clip from beyond the arc.
Her first 3-pointer of the game sparked a 6-0 Wazzu run in the final 2:04 of the first half to put the Cougs up 32-26 at halftime.
In the fourth quarter, Tuhina made a 3-pointer at the 4:10 mark to break a 5-0 Tiger run and bring the Cougs back within 7 points.
Her final 3-pointer with 1:07 remaining brought the Cougs within 5 points of the Tiger lead, 64-59.
Eleonora made her final 3-pointer with 37 seconds remaining, but the Tigers rattled off three straight points off of free throw from Oyindamola Akinbolawa and Scott-Grayson.
Auburn beat WSU 69-62. After falling to California 67-53, Nov. 17 on their home floor, the Tigers’ ability to defend their home court before beginning their SEC schedule is essential to third-year Auburn coach Johnnie Harris’ leading her team back to the postseason.
For WSU, their third loss of the year and second of nonconference play hurts WSU’s tournament resume right before the Cougs tackle their Pac-12 Conference schedule, in which six programs are ranked in the AP Top 25.
WSU will play nine games against programs that are ranked in the AP’s Dec. 18 poll, The Cougs will face No. 2 UCLA, No. 6 USC, No. 8 Colorado, No. 9 Stanford, No. 11 Utah and No. 23 Washington at least once with two meetings with Stanford, Colorado and Utah.
In response to their Dec. 10 60-55 loss to UW, Leger-Walker said the team attacked the following week of practice with a different mindset, instilled by Ethridge.
“We knew that we could play better than, you know, what we showed,” Leger-Walker said.
WSU delivered a complete performance on Sunday, beating the Houston Cougars 95-48. The less-than 72-hour turnaround to travel to the Eastern timezone is always a challenge. The trip proved to be one in which the Cougars were beaten by a rising Auburn Tigers squad defending their home court before the holidays.
The Cougs have 15 days between their Wednesday loss to Auburn and their Jan. 5 trip to Palo Alto, California to face No. 9 Stanford and begin the remainder of their Pac-12 Conference schedule.
Those 15 days include a nine-day break, which started Thursday, to celebrate the holidays with their families.
It is the longest break Ethridge had given a team, Ethridge said
Ethridge said she trusts her team to be mature over break and stay in shape when it might be tempting to take the whole time off.
“This is about being grown up and being mature and being a pro and showing up back like you know, yes, get away a little bit. Yes, refresh, but it’s not take nine days off. We don’t have that mindset or mentality and I trust my team to be good about that,” Ethridge said.
