The bracket is set. While the Cougs have known since their win over Pepperdine last Thursday they would have the No. 3 seed in the West Coast Conference tournament, the dust did not settle for the rest of the conference until the last of the WCC regular season games finished over the weekend.
The Cougs’ two biggest threats, Gonzaga and Portland, headed into the weekend vying for the No. 1 seed, but the Bulldogs ultimately came out on top. Despite both teams earning close victories over their respective opponents, Gonzaga’s season sweep of the Pilots gave them the advantage. The results were important for WSU because the Cougs have to go through at least one of those two teams and now they know which of the two they will face first: Portland.
WSU has a bye to the quarterfinals courtesy of earning a top-four seed, but the top two seeds receive a bye to the semifinals. If the Cougs win their first matchup they will face the Pilots in the semifinals. Knowing of this likely matchup a full week in advance is a major benefit for both teams and reflects the unique nature of the WCC tournament.
In a gauntlet of a tournament where the Cougs need to win three straight games, the emotions are bound to run high.
WSU head coach Kamie Ethridge said she tries to keep her emotions level during the postseason but has big aspirations for her team.
“I just look at it like this is the next game and the next part,” Ethridge said. “At this stage, I think the emotions get involved with senior night and the end of your season, and you want this thing to extend as far as you can possibly extend it. You want these guys to experience the postseason, you want them ultimately to make an NCAA tournament and you want them to win a game in the NCAA tournament. All the things that this program hasn’t done, we want to want that for our players and that’s where the emotion comes in.”
The Cougs are on the side of the bracket that contains the tournament’s first game: the matchup between No. 10 Pepperdine vs. No. 11 San Diego. With this, WSU has a wide range of potential matchups for the quarterfinals. The Cougs will face the winner of Saint Mary’s vs. any of the following teams: San Diego, Pepperdine or No. 7 Pacific. Even though WSU can prepare for Portland, the Cougs still have the challenge of preparing for four potential opponents in their first tournament game.
On a positive note, the Cougs are 8-0 against those four potential opponents this season with an average margin of victory of 12.5 points. While no team in the conference should be underestimated, the Cougs have seen each of these opponents twice already this season and have handled any adversity thrown their way with ease. WSU also boasts two blowouts of at least 20 points against these opponents, with one over Pepperdine and one over San Diego.
WSU must get the quarterfinal game out of the way first, but the real challenge will be the face-off with Portland. The Pilots have one of the most proficient offenses in the country and took care of business in both games against the Cougs this season, with an 83-65 victory in Pullman and a close 84-79 win at home.
The Pilots are No. 26 in scoring offense (78.0 points per game), No. 33 in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.19) and No. 50 in field goal percentage (45.1%) in the country. Portland tops the WCC in each of those categories as well.
While Portland often engages in high-scoring shootouts with tough opponents, their energy and style of defense can also present a major challenge. The Pilots are the only team in the conference that regularly commits to a zone on defense and consistently pulls out a full-court press. That strategy and the team’s overall intensity is a major reason why the Pilots are No. 27 nationally in steals per game at 11, which also leads the conference by a considerable margin.
The Cougs will have a tough time using their first two games against the Pilots for scouting purposes because any player on the Portland roster could have a breakout performance at any time. In the first game, it was guard Emme Shearer and forward Alexis Mark who showed out, scoring 24 and 21 points respectively. In the second game, it was guard Maisie Burnham’s career-high 31 points that put Portland over the top.
Portland can win a variety of ways as seen with its most recent game against Pacific where the team shot 48-56 on free throws. Those made free throws broke the school record by seven makes and was the highest single-game total in a Division I game since 2013.
WSU did cut its losing margin from 18 to five in the second game, inspiring some confidence that the team started to pick up on Portland’s weaknesses. The Cougs saw five double-digit scorers in that game, but it is likely WSU will need a breakout performance from a leading scorer like forward Tara Wallack or guard Eleonora Villa to make it to the WCC championship.
If they do get there, the Cougs will likely face Gonzaga, a whole other challenge in and of itself. The Cougs did lose by single digits both times against the Bulldogs this season, including forcing overtime in a sold-out McCarthey Athletic Center, but Gonzaga is the top team in the conference for a reason.
WCC Player and Defensive Player of the Year Yvonne Ejim is 15th in Division 1 with 20.7 points per game. Conference Freshman of the Year Allie Turner is No. 7 nationally in three-point percentage, shooting 45.3% on 6.5 attempts a game. Turner is the only freshman in the top 20 and is ahead of household names such as UConn’s Azzi Fudd.
The Bulldogs’ 5-1 record against the conference’s top four seeds is a resume to be afraid of. The Cougs did themselves a huge favor by earning the No. 3 spot, but the path to a conference title is far from a walk in the park.
WSU is getting hot at the right time as the team is riding a three-game win streak. The Cougs’ leading scorers, Villa and Wallack, are showing out at the right time and freshmen Dayana Mendes and Charlotte Abraham developed into significant contributing roles as the season reached its later stages.
Ethridge said center Candace Kpetikou has been dealing with a shoulder bruise but expects her and center Alex Covill to be back to practice Tuesday. For a team that’s dealt with illness and minor injuries to multiple players, getting healthy in time for the tournament will provide a huge boost.
Wallack and Ethridge also have more experience than most heading into the tournament, as the pair have made two NCAA tournaments together and won the Pac-12 championship in 2023. The leadership of Wallack, the team’s only senior, will certainly be needed on the court, as well as Ethridge’s wisdom from a storied career in women’s basketball.
“It’s still hard to believe this is coming up to the last couple of months of my college career but I think it’s just an incredible opportunity to just leave everything on the court and this week in Vegas is going to be a great test to the team and what we can do and everything we’ve worked towards this season going into the tournament,” Wallack said. “So I’m just super excited and it’s everything we’ve trained for so we’re going to leave everything on the court next week.”
The Cougs will have to face the reality though that a conference tournament title is their only ticket to March Madness. An at-large bid is almost completely off the table as the team has not been featured in bubble talks for most of the season. With a resume that features an 0-4 record against Quad 1 and 2 opponents, and 16 of the Cougs’ 18 wins coming in Quad 4, an automatic conference bid is the only way the team will be dancing in March.
With the recent inspiration from Wallack’s senior night, three consecutive wins and a large group of underclassmen looking to prove themselves, look for WSU to come into this tournament hungry for success, even as conference newcomers.
“No one will really know what to expect but we know that if we lose, we go home, and that’s not what’s going to happen,” Wallack said. “So we’re going to keep winning and everyone has the same mindset.”
The Cougs will face the winner of the third-round game between Saint Mary’s and the game-three winner at 2 p.m. March 9 in Las Vegas.
