PULLMAN, Wash. (October 17, 2023) – Washington State Women's Basketball's Pac-12 Conference schedule was finalized Tuesday and will once again feature all 18 conference matchups televised on the Pac-12 Networks.

WSU will host six nonconference contests and compete in the Cancun Challenge in Mexico highlighted by matchup against Maryland.

The Cougars return eight players from last year's team who won a program-record 23 games and captured the program's first Pac-12 Women's Basketball Championship. WSU knocked off three straight ranked teams in Las Vegas en route to the 2023 Pac-12 Championship and clinched their third-straight trip to the NCAA Tournament. Ethridge, the 2022-23 National Coach of the Year by The Athletic, will see three All-Pac-12 players return this season led by All-America guard Charlisse Leger-Walker.

WSU will host an exhibition contest with Montana Western (Oct. 29) before opening the season with three straight home games beginning Monday, Nov. 6 against Cal Poly, followed by a matchup against regional rival Gonzaga Thursday, Nov. 9 and will close out the first week against Idaho State, Sunday, Nov. 12. The opener against Cal Poly will be the first meeting between the two teams while the matchup against Gonzaga, an NCAA Tournament team last year, will be the first meeting against the Bulldogs since 2021, a 51-49 Cougar win in Spokane. WSU will face the Bengals for the first time since 2017, a 72-55 WSU win in Pullman.

The Cougars will hit the road for matchup at Montana (Nov. 14) before heading to Prairie View A&M Nov. 19 for the second year of the Pac-12/SWAC Legacy Series after beating PVAM 89-61 in Pullman last December.
For the Thanksgiving holiday, WSU will travel to Mexico for the Cancun Challenge for three games beginning Nov. 23 against a Maryland team who reached the Elite Eight last season. The following day, the Cougars will face UMASS (Nov. 24) before closing out play in Cancun against Wisconsin – Green Bay (Nov. 25). WSU has split its previous two meetings with the Terrapins, winning at the 2014 San Juan Shootout in Puerto Rico before Maryland evened the series after taking the 2016 matchup at the South Point Shootout in Las Vegas. The contest against UMASS will be the first in program history while the meeting against Wisconsin – Green Bay will be the third meeting between the two programs and first since 1992.

Washington State will close out the month of November hosting Texas A&M – Commerce (Nov. 29) and open December at home against UC Davis (Dec. 1). The Cougars will then head north for a road contest Dec. 5 against a South Dakota State team who reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament last season. WSU will wrap up their nonconference schedule with a home game against Houston (Dec. 17) on the Pac-12 Netowrk followed by a road trip to SEC country to face Auburn (Dec. 20). The Cougars beat SDSU last season in Pullman, will face Houston for the second straight season after beating the Coogs 70-63 in Texas last year and will face Auburn for the first time in program history.

The Pac-12 Conference schedule officially begins in early December with a home matchup against Washington in The Boeing Apple Series set for Sunday, December 10 at 1 p.m. The Cougars open the new year with three-straight road games, at Stanford (Jan. 5), at California (Jan. 7) and at Washington (Jan. 14). In late January, WSU will host Arizona State (Jan. 19) and Arizona (Jan. 21) before heading back to California for contests at USC (Jan. 26) and UCLA (Jan. 28).

The Cougars open February with four straight home games; Colorado (Feb. 2), Utah (Feb. 4), California (Feb. 9) and Stanford (Feb. 11). WSU will hit the road for four of their final six games beginning with a trip to Arizona (Feb. 16) and Arizona State (Feb. 18), returning home to close out the home slate against Oregon State (Feb. 23) and Oregon (Feb. 25) before closing out the regular season on the road at the mountain schools, Utah (Feb. 29) and Colorado (March 2).

The Pac-12 Conference Tournament will be held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas and is scheduled for March 6-10.

Season tickets for the 2023-24 Washington State women's basketball season are on sale at WSUCougars.com or by calling the WSU Athletic Ticket Office at 1-800-GO-COUGS.

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