No. 23 WASHINGTON STATE (5-0) vs. RV MARYLAND (2-2)
Thursday, Nov. 23 at 8 a.m. PT
Cancun, Mexico
Hard Rock Hotel Riviera Maya

No. 23 WASHINGTON STATE (5-0) vs. UMASS (1-4)
Friday, Nov. 24 at 8 a.m. PT
Cancun, Mexico
Hard Rock Hotel Riviera Maya

No. 23 WASHINGTON STATE (5-0) vs. GREEN BAY (2-1)
Saturday, Nov. 25 at 10:30 a.m. PT
Cancun, Mexico
Hard Rock Hotel Riviera Maya

NO. 23 WSU HEADS TO MEXICO FOR 2023 CANCUN CHALLENGE

No. 23 Washington State (5-0) begins a three-game set at the 2023 Cancun Challenge at the Hard Rock Hotel Riviera Maya in Cancun, Mexico. Game one tipoff is set for 8 a.m. (PT) on Thursday, Nov. 23 against RV Maryland, with game two against UMass set for Friday, Nov. 24 at 8 a.m. (PT) and game three against Green Bay on Saturday, Nov. 25 at 10:30 a.m. (PT). All games will be webstreamed on FloHoops.com.
 
NEXT UP
The Cougars return home after the five-game road trip to host Texas A&M Commerce on Wednesday, Nov. 29 at 7 p.m., and then UC Davis on Friday, Dec. 1.
 
ABOUT WASHINGTON STATE
WSU Women's Basketball is 5-0 for the first time since the 2015-16 season, and have started 4-0 or better for the third time under Head Coach Kamie Etheridge. Five players scored in double figures in Washington State's season-opening win over Cal Poly, and most recently, the Cougs saw nine different scorers in Sunday's 82-43 win over Prairie View A&M. WSU returns eight players from last year's Pac-12 Conference Tournament Championship team including three starters who won a program-record 23 games (23-11, 9-9 Pac-12) and were ranked as high as No. 22 in the AP Poll after capturing the program's first Pac-12 Women's Basketball Championship to clinch their third-straight trip to the NCAA Tournament. Kamie Ethridge, the 2022-23 National Coach of the Year by The Athletic, returns three All-Pac-12 players led by All-America guard Charlisse Leger-Walker.
 
COUGS RANKED NO. 23
The Cougs moved up a spot to No. 23 in this week's AP Top-25. Washington State was voted to the Preseason Associated Press Top-25 Poll for the first time in program history, appearing at No. 24 in the preseason poll and was again ranked No. 24 in the week two Top-25 poll. WSU was picked to finish fifth by the Pac-12 Conference coaches and media, matching the best preseason pick in program history after also being picked fifth ahead of the 1991-92 season.
 
SERIES HISTORY
WSU has faced Maryland only twice, and is 1-1 in those games having beaten them 70-64 in Puerto Rico on Nov. 29, 2014, and falling 79-69 in Las Vegas, Nev. on Nov. 26, 2016. This will be the program's first-ever meeting with UMass and Green Bay.
 
STARTING FIVE
>> Charlisse Leger-Walker passed the 1,500 career point milestone on Nov. 12, is 2nd in WSU history in 3-FG (182) and 5th in scoring (1,539), enters the week 6th in Pac-12 with 21 assists.
 
>> Bella Murekatete is 3rd in WSU history in blocks (155), 4th in rebounding (769), and tied for 3rd in starts (114), led WSU in scoring two of last three games, double-double 22 pts, 11 reb at Montana, tie for team-high 14.8 ppg and 8.2 rpg.
 
>> Graduate transfer Beyonce Bea (Idaho) owns 1,977 career points, 927 career rebounds, 7th-most among active NCAA DI players in both categories, also ties for the team lead with 8.2 rpg and 4th in Pac-12 with nine blocks.
 
>> Freshman Alex Covill enters Wednesday 5th in the nation and 3rd in the Pac-12 with 15 blocks this season.
 
>> Freshman Eleonora Villa opened her collegiate career hitting two 3-FG in each of the first four games and scored in double figures in three of the last four games, 3rd on WSU with 9.2 ppg.
 
LEGER-WALKER, MUREKATETE EARN PRESEASON ALL-PAC-12 ACCOLADES
Guard Charlisse Leger-Walker and center Bella Murekatete were named to the 2023-24 Preseason All-Pac-12 Conference Team as voted on by the conference's coaches and media. Ledger-Walker earned Preseason All-Pac-12 honors for the third-straight season after an All-America campaign last season. The senior from Waikato, New Zealand was named the Pac-12 Tournament Most Outstanding Player, earned All-Pac-12 honors, All-Defensive Team honorable mention and Academic All-America Second Team. In 30 starts, Leger-Walker averaged 17.7 ppg, 5.5 rpg and 4.1 apg while shooting at a 40.3% clip including 68 made threes. Murekatete earned her second Preseason All-Pac-12 accolade after earning honorable mention, was a Lisa Leslie Top-10 Finalist and earned a spot on the Pac-12 All-Tournament Team. The senior from Rwanda started all 34 games and was one of three Pac-12 players to rank inside the Top-10 in points, rebounds and blocks, joining Stanford's Cameron Brink and Haley Jones. Murekatete averaged 13.8 ppg, 7.0 rpg and tallied 43 blocks while shooting a team-best 49.1 field goal percentage.
 
LEGER-WALKER NAMED TO PLAYER OF THE YEAR WATCH LISTS
Guard Charlisse Leger-Walker was one of 20 players named to the Ann Meyers Drysdale Award Watch List for the third straight season, the three-time All-American is up for the award presented annually to the best shooting guard in NCAA Division I. Leger-Walker was also one of 50 players named to the Naismith Women's College Player of the Year Watch List and was named to the John R. Wooden Award Women's Player of the Year Top-50 Watch List.
 
MUREKATETE NAMED TO LISA LESLIE AWARD WATCH LIST
Center Bella Murekatete was named one of 20 candidates for the 2024 Lisa Leslie Award. Named after the three-time All-American,1994 National Player of the Year and Class of 2015 Hall of Famer, the annual award, in its seventh year, recognizes the top centers in women's NCAA Division I college basketball. Murekatete was named to the watch list for the third straight season and is one of six Pac-12 Conference centers recognized.
 
JOHANNA TEDER TO MISS 2023-24 SEASON
Senior guard Johanna Teder will miss the 2023-24 season recovering from injuries. "We are saddened to announce that Johanna will miss her final season with us. Yo (Johanna) has been dealing with a prolonged acute and chronic injury for the past two years, and after pursuing every option to alleviate and manage her pain, she has come to the conclusion the best option to eliminate all pounding and loading activities for an extended period of time," Kamie Ethridge said. Teder started all 34 games last season, averaged 7.9 ppg, scored in double figures 15 times and shot 34.4 percent from behind the arc, eighth in the Pac-12 with 59 made three-pointers. The fifth-year senior from Tartu, Estonia is a two-time Pac-12 Academic Honor Roll selection and was named to the CSC Academic All-District Team (Digital Technology & Culture).
 
BEYONCE BEA TRANSFERS TO WSU
Idaho graduate transfer Beyonce Bea arrived on campus in May after an illustrious career at nearby Idaho. Bea, pronounced Be-Ontz Bee, is from Washougal, Wash., finished her Idaho career third all-time in scoring with 1,938 points and was the second-leading scorer in the transfer portal after she led the Big Sky in scoring last season at 22.8 points per game, the sixth-best scoring average nationally while shooting 49.1 percent from the floor along the way.
 
COUGS TOURED EUROPE LAST SUMMER
The Washington State women's basketball team spent two weeks abroad for a European tour this past summer, traveling through Croatia and Greece.
 
ETHRIDGE INKS EXTENSION
WSU Director of Athletics Pat Chun announced this past May that Ethridge has signed a one-year contract extension keeping her in Pullman through the 2028-29 season. "Coach Ethridge is the best women's basketball head coach in the country and we are excited to have her lead our program for many years to come," said Chun. "To watch her and her staff pour their hearts into our student-athletes and transform our program these past five years has been amazing. Our program now lives at the highest levels of college basketball and we are appreciative of her commitment to WSU." Ethridge guided Washington State to its first Pac-12 title in any female team sport by winning the 2023 Pac-12 Women's Basketball Championship in Las Vegas. Washington State has seen its win total increase each season under Ethridge. Since coming to Pullman, Ethridge has led the Cougs to the 2023 Pac-12 Championship, made three-straight NCAA Tournament appearances (2021, 2022, 2023), and set program records for most wins in a regular season with 23 victories in 2022-23. The 2020-21 team set the program record for the highest regular season finish in the Pac-12, ending the season tied for second place with Oregon. The Cougars also won a school-record 11 Pac-12 games in 2020-21 en route to the program's second-straight NCAA Tournament appearance.