• There hasn't been a lot of significant athletic news out of Pullman over the past few days with two exceptions. Hoops. On that front, there is both good news and bad news. We will begin with the good news.
  Wazzu women's hoops (17-8,9-5 Pac-12) put together another solid four quarters of play last night to defeat Arizona State (12-10,4-5 Pac-12) on Friel Court in Beasley Coliseum. The final was 65-58 giving the Cougs 17 wins this season tying for the second-most victories in a single season for WSU in the NCAA era. Pac-12 Network coverage emphasized what an underdog the Cougs are by repeatedly claiming the Sun Devils look to be an NCAA tournament team. It's likely Coach Kamie Ethridge could care less about how much respect she gets from broadcasters. There's no question she's earned the respect of her team and the 17 opponents her squad has taken down this season.
  Wazzu was led in scoring by Johanna Teder who tallied 20-points including four critical bombs from behind the arc. Leading scorer for WSU, Charlisse Leger-Walker, registered 13 points in limited play. Charlisse found herself in foul trouble early in the first half which limited her to 26-minutes of playing time and eventually fouled out with about three minutes left to play. Teder played the entire 40-minutes and looked as fresh going down the stretch as she did at tipoff. Junior Bella Murekatete added 12-points while struggling with her touch in the paint. Bella could have easily matched Teder's output were it not for a handful of missed layups.
  With Charlisse spending a lot of time on the bench, her sister Krystal Leger-Walker didn't fill up the stat sheet but was a steadying force on the floor. Her leadership on offense made it possible for the Cougs to put up the necessary points to earn another conference victory. Perhaps there will come a time when the Pac-12 Network recognizes that WSU, a team that went to the NCAA tourney last season, is a very competitive squad, especially on their home court in front of a raucous group of students and fans. However, for now, let's simply offer them a family-friendly double-barreled middle finger and move on.
  After the game, Coach Ethridge had this to say:
  "I'm thrilled about this win. (ASU) is a dangerous team. Arizona State is really good, and they can hurt you in a lot of ways. Anytime a game is in the '50s, any team can win. We had some turnovers and they were great about using their timeouts to stop our momentum. We were really fortunate to have a really good fourth quarter that separated ourselves from a team that has found ways to win a lot of those types of games. I'm proud of this team and excited we've got (17) wins. This is good for our resume and we want to keep building on it."
  Coach Ethridge and Wazzu women's hoops will host the Arizona Wildcats this Sunday at 12noon on, you guessed it, the Pac-12 Networks.
  https://wsucougars.com/news/2022/2/18/womens-basketball-cougs-pick-up-17th-win-of-the-season-with-a-victory-of-arizona-state.aspx

• Now for the bad news. WSU men's hoops (14-11,7-7 Pac-12) traveled to Westwood last Thursday to take on the No. 13 UCLA Bruins (18-5,10-4 Pac-12) in Pauley Pavillion. On the heels of their being pummeled by Arizona, the Cougs were completely crushed by the Bruins by a final score of 76-56. In the end, the game wasn't as close as the score. Yes, it was that poor of a performance in the second half by Coach Kyle Smith's troops.
  Wazzu was competitive in the first half despite the absence of TJ Bamba and Dishon Jackson. Coach Smith could have used Bamba's outstanding ability to guard players and the perimeter. Given the size of UCLA's big men, Jackson could have made a difference in the middle. Yet after the opening 20-minutes, WSU trailed by just ten at intermission. Come out with guns blazing and the Cougs could easily get back into the conference contest. And they did just that, closing the score to within four after putting together and 8-2 run. For whatever reason, many of the players wearing WSU uniforms clearly lost their confidence. At that point, UCLA put together a 15-1 run basically putting the game away early.
  There were two guys for the Cougs who definitely came to play and ignored the fact WSU is 3-61 all-time against UCLA in Pauley Pavillion. Both DJ Rodman and Andrej Jakimovski played their hearts out in a losing effort. Both came off the bench yet looked as though they should have been in the starting lineup.
  Players have off games. Michael Flowers definitely had an off game. He had averaged 17.6 points in the past five games but was held to 3 points on 1 of 8 shooting from the floor. To be fair, that performance wasn't all on Flowers. His teammates did not put him in a position to succeed. Most of his shots from behind the arc were closely contested and he wasn't given the ball in a position to score around the hoop.
  Next up for Coach Smith's squad is USC on Sunday evening at 4:30pm on FS1. At least Wazzu won't be subjected to the conference bias of the Pac-12 Network.

• Wazzu baseball began their 2022 schedule Friday night with a game in Honolulu against the Hawaii Rainbows. The Cougs are off to a good start! Jake Meyer hit a go-ahead solo home run in the eighth inning and Washington State beat Hawaii 5-4.
  The Cougars received a three-hit game from Kyle Russell, a two-run homer from Bryce Matthews and the bullpen allowed just one run over the final 7.1 innings to give WSU their third-straight season-opening win for the first time since 2004-06. Collin Montez reached base four times while right-hander Tyler Hoeft earned the win with three scoreless innings of relief and righthander Connor Barison closed it out with a scoreless ninth to earn the save.
  Cougar pitching was anything but sharp, surrendering 11-walks. Yikes! The series continues Saturday at 8:35 p.m. (PT).

Go Cougs!!!