Tara Wallack and the Cougs return to Beasley Coliseum Monday, this time for postseason basketball.
After a heartbreaking exit in the West Coast Conference tournament semifinals against Portland, the Cougs earned their fifth consecutive postseason appearance and a chance at redemption with a WNIT invite.
WSU earned an at-large bid and a bye to the second round as one of the stronger teams in the tournament. Nine teams sit ahead of the Cougs by NET ranking in the 48-team bracket, but no team is above No. 88 Purdue Fort-Wayne.
The Cougs were set to face the winner of a first-round Air Force-Utah Valley matchup, a rematch of an early-season non-conference game that saw Air Force come away with a 76-58 victory. UVU flipped the script when it mattered most in the second matchup, winning 70-64 to secure the school’s first-ever postseason win. A combined 29 points from guards Tahlia White and Halle Nelson propelled the Wolverines to the hard fought victory.
UVU now faces WSU for a chance to upset the Cougs and advance the farthest the Wolverines ever have in the postseason.
UVU is led by White, a redshirt senior, who averages 12.5 points, 2.2 assists and 2.2 steals per game and is the only player on the team to average double-digit points who has seen significant action this season. White is also one of nine Wolverines to average more than one steal per game and UVU is fifth in the nation in steals per game.
The Wolverines do not excel with shooting efficiency, shooting just 39.5% from the field and 28.4% from three, but are anchored by one dangerous three-point shooter in redshirt junior wing Amanda Barcello, who shoots 47% from beyond the arc on 3.8 attempts per game. The Cougs have allowed opponents to shoot 32.5% from three this season, but have been punished by lights-out shooters like Gonzaga’s Allie Turner all season.
Co-WAC Sixth Player of the Year Cambree Blackham, a freshman guard is also a name to watch for UVU. Blackham is averaging 4.6 points and 1.8 assists this season but scored a career-high 23 points and is prone to go off at anytime with her youthful energy off the bench.
The Wolverines’ ability to force deflections and make driving to the basket a challenge could prove difficult for WSU to handle, but UVU’s lack of strength on most areas of the floor makes an upset unlikely. UVU ranks 319th in turnovers committed and 279th in three-point shooting, while ranking below average in most other offensive categories.
UVU ranked No. 206 in the NET and has no wins above Quad IV. The Wolverines haven’t faced a Quad I team all season either. UVU also finished fifth in the Western Athletic Conference standings and were blown out in the conference tournament semifinals against Grand Canyon after defeating Abilene Christian in the quarterfinals.
While the Cougs did not face imposing competition either for most of the WCC schedule, games against Iowa, Stanford, Gonzaga, Oregon and Portland look much more impressive than anything on the Wolverines’ schedule. Purely by strength of schedule, where WSU outranks UVU by over 200 spots (No. 107 vs. No. 308), the Cougs are more battle-tested and have the advantage.
Even with the Cougs being heavy favorites in the game, regardless of the outcome, WSU head coach Kamie Ethridge has additional priorities. Ethridge said the tournament features a lot of up-and-coming teams that will stay competitive against her team and give much of the roster an opportunity to gain valuable experience.
“It’s just a fantastic opportunity for us to continue to practice and get some game experience,” Ethridge said. “I really want to use this tournament to get a lot of our young players a lot of time and run through you our bench and make sure that we’re getting quality experiences for our players.”
Ethridge also said that it was disappointing to not meet the expectations of making the NCAA tournament but she is still grateful for the opportunity to compete in the WNIT.
The postseason experience will be valuable for a roster that features six freshmen and is losing a star senior in Wallack. Next year’s team will also only have two players who have NCAA tournament experience as current juniors Astera Tuhina and Kyra Gardner were freshman on the 2023 Cougar team that lost to FGCU in the first round.
Returning to Pullman for another home game weeks after the last one also carries significance as WNIT teams have to pay to host games. Typically bigger schools and higher seeds are able to host, but it is no guarantee as it depends on each school’s athletic funding and willingness to host.
According to the WNIT manual, teams are required to pay $10,000 to host a second-round game or 85% of the first $30,000 made in revenue. For a WSU program that only recently began to build up its pedigree under Ethridge, hosting games in postseason tournaments is a huge step forward.
“We certainly even feel a little bit of responsibility to uphold that and and to put on a good show and really compete and hope that we can advance through this thing,” Ethridge said.
Ethridge said the team will likely be unable to host games in future rounds of the WNIT due to unknown conflicts, but pointed to Athletic Director Anne McCoy and donations to the school athletic fund as signs of support for the team’s ability to host.
