After opening conference play 4-1, WSU is set to defend its third-place position in the West Coast Conference as it takes on two top-five conference contenders in Saint Mary’s and Gonzaga.
In the first week of conference play, the WCC revealed itself as a conference that could be highly competitive at the top of the standings. Teams that started the season right around the .500 mark in non-conference play are showing out against other WCC opponents and the once-undefeated conference favorite Portland suddenly looks vulnerable after losing close contests to Gonzaga and Oregon State. The upcoming two matchups for WSU present an opportunity to solidify their spot in the standings, but losses could have the team quickly losing ground against similar competition.
WSU head coach Kamie Ethridge also noticed the opportunity at hand.
“The biggest thing that I’ve learned from the West Coast Conference is just the fact that anybody can beat anybody and we can probably beat anybody,” Ethridge said. “If we’re at our best I think we have a great chance, but if we aren’t spot on and directed and together and on edge, then we’re going to get beat.”
First up for the Cougs is Saint Mary’s, a team that has had a very up-and-down season. The Gaels are currently 8-6 and are over 60 spots lower than the Cougs in the NET rankings, but Saint Mary’s strung together a four-game win streak against their first WCC opponents before losing in respectable fashion to front-runner San Francisco. Saint Mary’s sits just above WSU in the WCC standings and with a win, WSU would quickly jump within reach of the top spot.
The Gaels are led by a pair of strong scoring guards in senior Kennedy Johnson and redshirt sophomore Maia Jones who are averaging 13.6 and 11.4 points, respectively. Johnson was the best transfer addition this past offseason for Saint Mary’s, coming from WSU neighbor Idaho where she broke out last season, averaging 14 points and seven rebounds on her way to first-team Big Sky honors. Johnson is the only Gael to start all 14 games so far and rebounds well for her height, averaging 5.5 rebounds this season.
Jones is the team’s second-leading scorer and an excellent shooter. After shooting 42% from deep in her freshman year, Jones is shooting nearly 42% on 3.5 attempts per game. Jones exploded for a career-high 28 points against UC San Diego earlier this season and has been prone to randomly go off on multiple occasions this season. She should be considered a legitimate threat and is the definite X-factor for Saint Mary’s.
The Gaels rank No. 194 in turnovers per game (17.1) and grab four fewer rebounds a game than the Cougs (32.1). WSU has struggled to win the rebounding battle this season, but has had a dominating presence on the defensive end averaging the third most blocks in the country (6.8) and allowing opponents to shoot just 40.1% on 2-point shots (ranked No. 34). With center Alex Covill and forward Tara Wallack down low, the two block leaders in the WCC, the Cougs can utilize that defensive prowess to limit driving potential and force Saint Mary’s to make shots from outside. If Jones shoots as well as she has at times this season, she could punish the Cougs from beyond the arc.
After facing Saint Mary’s on Thursday, WSU welcomes eastern Washington rival Gonzaga to Beasley Coliseum and for the first time as fellow conference members. As a WCC affiliate, the Cougs finally get a chance to build up the rivalry with the Bulldogs, who sit just under 80 miles from Pullman.
WSU and Gonzaga have faced off 17 times in the last 25 years and the Cougs won last season’s non-conference matchup 77-72 in a thrilling overtime finish. The Bulldogs lead the all-time series at 10-7.
The Bulldogs entered the season as the favorites according to the WCC preseason media poll and received 16 votes in the initial AP top 25 rankings. WSU head coach Kamie Ethridge at WCC media day described Gonzaga as the “first and last thought” of the WCC for many years, praising them as a team to watch out for. Yet after just one week, Gonzaga’s threat to enter the top 25 quickly dissapated and the Bulldogs have failed to meet expectations since.
Stanford blew out Gonzaga, just as it did WSU earlier in the season, and California also dominated Gonzaga. Then after gaining some momentum with a three-game win streak, Gonzaga lost four in a row. The Bulldogs have looked better as of late, starting 4-2 against WCC foes, but have still underwhelmed this season.
Gonzaga is 9-8 and sits at No. 127 in the NET with a Quad 3 win, something WSU does not currently have. Both teams are in similar situations, floundering when given the opportunities to earn resume-building wins, but comfortable against most WCC opponents. Both teams have yet to pick up a Quad 1 or Quad 2 win despite having multiple opportunities to do so.
The Bulldogs will likely have the best player on the floor in Beasley with last year’s Becky Hammon Player of the Year, Yvonne Ejim. The fifth-year forward was both WCC player of the year and WCC defensive player of the year last season and is currently averaging a team-leading 20.2 points per game and 8.3 rebounds despite her 6-foot-1 frame. Ethridge said Ejim is one of her top concerns and no one can seem to stop her in the post.
The Cougs will also have to watch out for freshman guard Allie Turner, who has been a pleasant surprise for the Bulldogs. She is providing a spark from outside, shooting 42% from three on over 6.5 attempts per game. She won WCC freshman of the week earlier this season and highlights Gonzaga’s one-two, inside-outside scoring punch.
While these next two games may not make or break the Cougs’ season, it still presents a critical stretch of the season. Continuing to start off WCC play hot while beating upper-tier WCC teams can create an opportunity to breeze through the rest of the schedule and gain solid ground for the much-coveted top spots in the standings. The top two teams in the conference automatically advance to the semifinals of the WCC tournament.
The Cougs travel to Moraga, Calif, to face Saint Mary’s on Thursday before returning home on Saturday for a tip-off at noon against Gonzaga.
