WSU Opens Season Hosting LMU and Saint Mary's

November 09, 2016 | Women's Basketball

WBB Game Notes - LMU-Saint Mary's June Daugherty Press Conference No. 9

By: Washington State Athletic Communications

COUGARS OPEN SEASON HOSTING LMU, SAINT MARYS
Washington State women's basketball opens the season this weekend, hosting Loyola Marymount University Friday at 7 p.m. and Saint Mary's College Sunday at 1 p.m.

ALUMNI WEEKEND
WSU is welcoming back a number of Cougar women's basketball alumni this weekend and will recognize former coach Harold Rhodes who led WSU to its only NCAA Tournament appearance in 1991, also earning Pac-10 Coach of Year that season.

UP NEXT
The Cougars are home again next weekend, hosting the University of San Francisco Friday, Nov. 18 and Oklahoma State University Sunday, Nov. 20.

ABOUT LOYOLA MARYMOUNT
Loyola Marymount went 11-20 last season including a 6-12 mark in West Coast Conference play. The Cougars won the only previous meeting with the Lions, an 87-60 victory in Los Angeles in 2014.

ABOUT SAINT MARYS
Saint Mary's College went 24-8 last season, falling in the first round of the WNIT to Eastern Michigan 74-73. The Gaels lead the all-time series with WSU 5-2 after taking last year's meeting in Moraga 75-71.SMC owns a 2-1 record in Pullman and will be the first meeting in Pullman since 2009.

COUGARS SIGN TWO STANDOUTS TO NLI
Washington State signed guard Celena Molina and center Taryn Shelley to National Letters of Intent, head coach June Daugherty announced Wednesday. Molina, a 5-10 guard out of Konawaena High School in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, is the younger sister of current Cougar freshman guard Chanelle. Entering her senior season, Molina is a two-time All-State Fab 15 selection by the Honloulu Star Advertiser and a three-time All-Big Island Interscholastic Federation selection while helping KHS to state titles the past two seasons. Molina is also a two-time All-State selection in volleyball and was part of the state champion 4x400 relay team in track. Molina plays for coach Bobbie Awa, the mother of former Cougar guard Dawnyelle Awa, and is the cousin of current Cougar volleyball player Alexis Dirige. Shelley, a 6-3 center out of Shorewood High School in Shorewood, Wash., is a two-time All-Wesco selection and is rated a 3.5 star prospect according to Prospectnation.com. Shelley is coming off an impressive junior campaign where she earned All-Wesco first team honors after leading the team with 13.8 ppg and 7.6 rpg in league play. Shelley averaged 16.3 ppg and 20 rpg during district play last season including a 32-point effort and was named Prep Athlete of the Week once, Prep Basketball Starr twice and All-USA Girls Basketball Performer of the Week by King5 TV once during the season. Shelley also lettered in volleyball four times, earning All-Wesco second team honors as a junior and later All-Tournament Team accolades at the state tournament.

STRONG SECOND HALF LEADS COUGARS TO EXHIBITION WIN
WSU posted an 81-73 victory over visiting University of Alaska-Anchorage in an exhibition contest last Sunday. Three Cougars scored in double figures led by junior guard Pinelopi Pavlopoulou and sophomore guard Borislava Hristova who each finished with 15 points. Pavlopoulou hit three 3-pointers, dished out eight assists while sophomore guard Alexys Swedlund added 12 points and redshirt-sophomore forward Nike McClure blocked seven shots, a would-be WSU single-game record if the game had been in the regular season. UAA, a team that went 38-3 last season and played in the Division II National Championship game, was led by Tara Thompson's 26 points after she hit eight 3-pointers. The Cougars shot 50 percent from the floor in the first half and finished shooting 44 percent while UAA connected on 11 threes in the game but was held to 22 percent shooting for the game. WSU blocked 10 shots and forced 26 turnovers.

LAST SEASON
Washington State finished ninth in the Pac-12 Conference with a 5-13 record and a 14-16 overall record. The Cougars found early-season success, jumping out to a 5-0 start. Led by freshman phenom Borislava Hristova, WSU clinched the 2015 Bank of Hawaii Rainbow Wahine Classic title. In her ninth season at the helm of the women's program, June Daugherty led a youthful team to the Cougars' best start since 1989-90. WSU completed its nonconference season with a 9-2 record before entering the country's toughest RPI conference. Washington State swept Colorado and Arizona and picked up a Pac-12 win over No. 25 USC.

HRISTOVA AND HAILEY EARN ALL-PAC-12 HONORS
Freshman Borislava Hristova and sophomore Caila Hailey received All-Pac-12 honors. Hristova was selected to the All-Pac-12 Team by media members and was named to the Pac-12 All-Freshman Team. Sophomore Caila Hailey received an honorable mention to the Pac-12 All-Defensive Team.

FOUR COUGS EARN PAC-12 ALL-ACADEMIC AWARDS
Senior Mariah Cooks headlined a quartet of Cougar players that earned Pac-12 All-Academic honorable mention. Cooks earned the honor for the third-consecutive season, while sophomores Bianca Blanaru, Louise Brown, and Pinelopi Pavlopoulou garnered honorable mention in their first year of eligibility.

WSU SENIORS LEAVE THEIR MARK
WSU's four seniors, Dawnyelle Awa, Mariah Cooks, Taylor Edmondson, and Alexas Williamson, finished their careers having played a combined 8,047 minutes in Cougar uniform. The four seniors have their names sprinkled throughout the WSU record book with seven spots among the program's all-time top-10 lists. The senior class led WSU to back-to-back postseason berths for the first time in school history and the best conference finish since 1997-98.

BLOCK PARTY
The Cougars broke the WSU single-season record with 120 total blocks during the 2015-16 season. WSU averaged 4.0 blocks per game led by redshirt-freshman Nike McClure and true freshman Maria Kostourkova. The freshman duo headlined the Cougar frontline with 25 and 23 blocks, respectively, fourth- and fifth-most in WSU freshman history.

BORISLAVA 'BOBI BUCKETS' HRISTOVA
True freshman and Pac-12 All-Freshman Team honoree Borislava Hristova turned heads in her first season with the Cougars. The Varna, Bulgaria native led the team with 16.3 points per game, second-best in the conference by a freshman and sixth-best overall. The three-time Pac-12 Freshman of the Week selection set the WSU freshman scoring record with 490 total points. During her first season in Pullman, Hristova set the WSU freshman records in total points, field goals made (200), points per game (16.3), and free throw percentage (.881). She reached double-digit scoring figures 26 times this season and already holds the all-time record at WSU for best career free throw percentage at .881 (min. 50 made FTs). Nine times Hristova scored at least 20 points, breaking a freshman record that had stood for over 26 years.

TWO MINUTE DRILL
Thirteen times last season WSU played a game that was within two possessions (six points) in the final two minutes. In six of those games the Cougars were leading, and in seven games they were trailing. WSU owns a 5-8 record in such games. The Cougars finished 4-2 when leading in the final 120 seconds and 1-6 when trailing down the stretch, having pulled off a last-second comeback at Arizona, Feb. 21. In addition, WSU was within two possessions of pulling off upsets of No. 16 Stanford and No. 9 Oregon State with less than four minutes remaining. The Cougars went 2-6 in games decided by five points or fewer.

COUGAR FRESHMEN CONTRIBUTE EARLY
Last season, Washington State welcomed one of its most talented recruiting classes in June Daugherty's tenure with the signing of its three 2015-16 freshmen. Borislava Hristova led the team with 16.3 points per game. The Varna, Bulgaria native dropped 30 points on San Jose State, becoming just the second freshman in WSU history to reach the 30-point plateau. Maria Kostourkova proved herself an inside threat, averaging 4.3 rebounds per game and 5.5 points per game. Kostourkova led the team with a career-high 17 points against Colorado, Jan. 4. Alexys Swedlund dropped four 3-pointers against California to aid the Cougars, finishing with a career-high 16 points.

COUGARS' DEPTH SHINES
Nine Cougar players appeared in all 30 games during the season, and nine players averaged over 10 minutes per game. WSU's bench players outscored the opponent's bench 24 times last season and the Cougar reserves outscored opponent reserves by an average of 12.1 points per game.

DAUGHERTY REACHES 100 WSU WINS
Head coach June Daugherty earned her 100th-career win at Washington State with the Cougars' 74-66 victory at Colorado, Jan. 4. Daugherty has guided the WSU program to a 104-177 record over nine seasons in Pullman, becoming the third coach in Cougar history to reach 100 WSU wins. Sue Durant boasted a 134-99 record in nine seasons (1974-82) and Harold Rhodes guided the Cougars to 194 wins over 17 years at WSU (1983-99). Daugherty is no stranger to success, having reached 400-career wins last season, and currently owns a 417-391 record over her 27-year coaching career.

STARTING OFF STRONG
After beginning the season 5-0 for the first time since 1998, the Cougars recorded their first loss of the season at Oklahoma State. WSU responded with three-straight victories, improving to 8-1 for the first time since 1989-90, before falling at Saint Mary's, Dec. 12. The honor for the best start in school history goes to the Cougars' 1978-79 squad that started the season 10-0 before falling to Oregon.