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WSU women's hoops (18-9,10-6 Pac-12) traveled to Palo Alto to take on the No. 2 Stanford Cardinal (24-3,15-0 Pac-12) Thursday night. The Cougs played well but didn't have the firepower to take down Stanford on their court eventually falling by a final of 61-54. Tenacious defense was the hallmark of Wazzu's play, holding the Cardinal to a dozen points below their season scoring average. They forced 17 turnovers, nearly double given up by WSU. Basically, Stanford had one more star player than the Cougs. Cameron Brink scored 16 points and had 15 rebounds for her 10th double-double of the season. She proved to be the difference in this game. When Brink was on the floor, she scored at will and was a force defending the paint.
Charlisse Leger-Walker scored 17 to lead Washington State, which was coming off a win over then-No. 8 Arizona.
"You need to win, but you need to know you can compete," Cougars Coach Kamie Ethridge said. "I still think we have more in us. Holding Stanford to 61? I'd think we had a chance to win the game."
And they did.
Krystal Leger-Walker hit a 3-pointer in the final 30-seconds and Washington State drew within seven points of the Cardinal. It was one of the closest games in the history of the series, in which Stanford has won all 71 games. That's not a typo. WSU is oh-fer Stanford, 0-71.
With a win against Cal, the Cougs will earn a bye in the opening round of the Pac-12 Tournament. They will need to continue performing well in the conference championship tourney to secure a birth in the NCAA tournament for the second consecutive season.
Next up for the Cougs is their regular-season finale hosted by Cal. Tipoff is slated for 12noon with the contest being broadcast on Pac-12 Network.
https://www.yakimaherald.com/sports/college_sports/wsu_sports/brink-jones-lead-no-2-stanford-over-washington-state-61-54/article_390ca41f-ee11-53f0-a9d7-79e65c3b34f9.html -
Cougar baseball opened a series with Long Island University Thursday afternoon in Peoria, AZ with a 10-0 shutout victory. The Cougs were firing on all cylinders getting a six-inning performance from starter Grant Taylor. Taylor looked to be in mid-season form and retired eight straight hitters at one point. Four Cougar pitchers combined for nine strikeouts and allowed just four hits in WSU's first shutout win since posting a 10-0 win at Santa Clara in 2019.
The game was up for grabs through the first six innings. WSU posted single runs in the second, third, and fifth innings. Wazzu exploded for six runs in the seventh to pretty much ice the game.
The second game of the series will be played Friday with the opening pitch scheduled for 12noon.
Go Cougs!!!
- It seems fitting to put together a list of coaches who branch off of the Mike Leach coaching tree. Perspective on his football genius can easily be determined by a cursory glance:
Dave Aranda/Baylor head coach – Graduate assistant coach under Leach from 2000-02 at Texas Tech
Neal Brown/West Virginia head coach – Played under Leach in 1998 when Leach was offensive coordinator at Kentucky
Sonny Cumbie/Louisiana Tech head coach – Played under Leach at Texas Tech from 2000-03 and later served as a graduate assistant coach under Leach
Sonny Dykes/TCU head coach – Coached wide receivers and later was the co-offensive coordinator at Texas Tech under Leach from 2000-06
Josh Heupel/Tennessee head coach – Played under Leach at Oklahoma in 1999 when Leach was the offensive coordinator for the Sooners
Dana Holgorsen/Houston head coach – Coached alongside Leach as assistants at Valdosta State from 1993-95, then served as a wide receivers coach and offensive coordinator under Leach from ...
- The news of former WSU Coach Mike Leach passing at the young age of 61 is very, very sad. I had the pleasure of writing about the Cougs when Leach was at the helm. To say that he was a unique person doesn't begin to describe the multi-faceted dimension of the man.
In terms of coaching football, Leach led his teams in a way that had most other coaches scratching their heads. His offensive creativity gave a multitude of defensive coordinators ulcers. To say that his techniques for molding student-athletes into football players were unusual would be accurate. Making guys run sprints in a sand pit named "Leach Beach" is a prime example. Crazy as that sounds, his players had fewer ankle injuries over the course of the season than any team in football. Only Mike Leach could get players to hit the beach. And if you look at the coaching tree that branches out from Leach, you'd find a myriad of men who owe him for their start in the profession.
When you examine the way Leach represented the schools ...
- Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, so Wazzu's loss yesterday to UNLV by a score of 74-70 was just that, a loss. However, there were plenty of reasons to applaud both the performance and the progress the Cougs are making over the past few games. Let's get the bad observation out of the way. WSU turned the ball over a ridiculous 22 times. No one is going to beat many teams with such wreckless play, especially against a team that posted a 9-0 record going into the contest. Some of those errors might be attributed to Coach Kyle Smith going with a different lineup almost every game because of player injuries. Facts are facts and when there isn't a steady lineup, players struggle to play team ball. On the bright side, Wazzu shot a respectable 54.2% from the field, coupled with a very nice 56.5% from behind the arc. On defense, WSU held UNLV to just 30.4% from behind the arc and 50.9% overall. The Cougs outrebounded the Rebels by a margin of 33-20. Despite being down by ...
