In a season expected to have a roster in flux and transition, the resiliency of the WSU women’s basketball team shone through Tuesday. Senior Tara Wallack, and four other Cougars, were awarded all-conference honors, rounding out a regular season of unlikely success.
Wallack led the bunch with an All-WCC First Team selection, the first all-conference honor of her career. As the team’s lone senior, Wallack stepped into the largest role she has seen as a Coug, both in terms of on-floor production and as a locker room leader. Wallack is averaging 13.2 points, 7.1 rebounds and 1.9 blocks in 33.4 minutes per game, all career highs. Her total blocks (58) ranked No. 2 in the WCC. WSU head coach Kamie Ethridge attributed Wallack’s development as a team leader to her commitment to training with the younger players during the offseason.
The Canadian-native has received a mountain of praise from Ethridge and her teammates in her final season as a Coug, and her team hopes to reward her for it.
“I just think so much of Tara and I think what she had to do this year as being the lone senior is the hardest thing ever,” Ethridge said. “I think she stepped up to the challenge and was as good as anyone could be and we just have to send her off with the best possible send off that we can, and that’s winning three games in a row and advancing to the NCAA tournament.”
Guard Eleonora Villa, the team’s leading scorer, earned second team honors. The selection marked back-to-back seasons of conference honors after being named to the All-Freshman team in the last year before the Pac-12 conference broke up. In contrast to Wallack, Villa found a significant contributing role immediately a freshman year that broke multiple program marks for first-year players and rode that momentum into an even stronger second season.
The Italian three-level scorer achieved career-bests in points (13.9), assists (2.6) and rebounds (3.1). Despite a drop in efficiency, Villa showed improved command of the offense and the ability to work off the differing styles of Wallack and fellow guard Astera Tuhina. Heading into her junior year, Villa has emerged as a leader of the team’s rapidly-improving international youth movement.
The Cougs also nabbed a couple of spots on the All-Freshman team with guard Charlotte Abraham and forward Dayana Mendes. The two freshmen started the season in relatively limited roles before breaking out and finding consistent roles in the rotation later in the season. The pair combined for four Freshman of the Week awards in the regular season.
Despite seeing limited action, Abraham started off the year with a bang against Eastern Washington, scoring 12 points and sinking the game-tying three-pointer at the end of regulation in what would be an overtime victory. The French three-point specialist averaged 5.7 points and hit 38.7% of her three-pointers on 3.3 attempts per game.
Abraham also showed perserverance midseason, earning back-to-back Freshman of the Week awards in late December, before missing two weeks with an apparent leg injury in on Jan. 9. Just two weeks later, Abraham returned back to form and notched three 10-point games down the stretch, including a crucial performance off the bench against Gonzaga in Spokane that helped WSU nearly take down the Bulldogs.
Mendes, who was shaking off rust after missing a significant amount of time in recovering from a previous injury, began the season slowly while missing the first game against EWU. She showed flashes of potential in the Discover Puerto Rico shootout, where she scored 16 and 13 points against Norfolk State and Virginia, respectively. Against Norfolk State she also earned her first career double-double on her way to her first Freshman of the Week.
The middle of the season was a down period for Mendes, who struggled to gain footing as center Alex Covill emerged as the most consistent starter. Late in January, Mendes’ versatility on both ends of the floor earned her increased minutes and when Covill went down with an injury on Jan. 27, Mendes took off. Since a loss against Portland on Jan. 23, the start of Mendes’ rise, she has averaged 10.6 points and 22.3 minutes, while starting the last five games of the season. She also earned a second weekly honor on Feb. 17.
Tuhina, the likely leader of next year’s Cougar senior class, was the final Coug honored. Tuhina was up-and-down this season as she dealt with illness around the midway point and struggled to gain confidence in her scoring ability. Tuhina averaged just 6.8 field goal attempts and shot 36.4% from the field. The Kosovo native still averaged the third-highest minutes per game (30.8) because her playmaking and tough-shot making proved invaluable at times, especially later in the season.
Tuhina finished third in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.0) and sixth in assists in the WCC (3.6) and shot a solid 36.7% from three this season. While inconsistent, when Tuhina was willing to step up to make the shots and passes she needed to, she did. Tuhina will be the leading scorer and only returning starter in a senior class that will likely only feature three players next year.
On a team with 10 international players, six of whom were freshman, the team found pleasantly surprising success out of the young core and the team as whole. Despite losing a program cornerstone in Wallack, Tuesday’s honorees should provide Ethridge with plenty of hope going into next season and beyond.
The Cougs now await their next opponent in the quarterfinals of the WCC tournament and will play next on March 9 in Las Vegas as WSU seeks to capture a conference title and a berth to the NCAA tournament.
