NO. 24 COUGARS HOST GONZAGA THURSDAY NIGHT
No. 24 Washington State women's basketball welcomes regional rival Gonzaga University to Beasley Coliseum for a Thursday night matchup at 7 p.m.

NEXT UP
The Cougars will wrap up their homestand Sunday against Idaho State at 2:30 p.m. before traveling to Missoula to face Montana next Tuesday.

ABOUT WASHINGTON STATE
Five players scored in double figures and Washington State outscored Cal Poly 47-27 in the second half in Monday's season-opening 78-61 win in Beasley Coliseum. Bella Murekatete led all scorers with 18 points, freshman Jenna Villa hit four 3-pointers and Charlisse Leger-Walker dished out nine assists to help WSU claim their fifth-straight season opener. The Cougars return 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 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 Tournament Championship and clinched 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 OPEN SEASON RANKED NO. 24
For the first time in program history, Washington State was voted to the Preseason Associated Press Top-25 Poll, appearing at No. 24. 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 leads the all-time series with Gonzaga 21-11 after taking the last meeting 51-49 in December of 2022 in Spokane. The Cougars are 10-4 all-time over GU in Pullman but the Bulldogs have won thelast two meetings including a 76-53 win in 2019. Gonzaga, who opened the season with an 83-70 win at Montana Monday, went 28-5 last season, winning the WCC regular season and earning a trip to the NCAA Tournament where they dropped a first-round matchup to Ole Miss.

CLIMBING THE RECORD BOOK, BEA CHASING MILESTONES
Charlisse Leger-Walker, Bella Murekatete and Johanna Teder all continue to move their names up the Cougar record book.
>> Leger-Walker is 2nd in 3-FG (178) and 9th in career scoring (1,471)
>> Murekatete is 3rd in blocks (151), 4th in rebounding (735), tied for 4th in starts (110)
>> Teder is 6th all time in 3-FG (154)
>> Graduate transfer Beyonce Bea (Idaho) enters Thursday with 1,949 career points and 895 career rebounds

LEGER-WALKER, MUREKATETE EARN PRESEASON ALL-PAC-12 ACCOLADES
Guard Charlisse Leger-Walker and center Bella Murekatete were both named the 2023-24 Preseason All-Pac-12 Conference Team as voted on by the conference's coaches and media. Ledger-Walker earns Preseason All-Pac-12 honors for the third-straight season after an All-America campaign last season and helping WSU to a Pac-12 Conference Tournament Title and its third-straight trip to the NCAA Tournament. The senior from Waikato, New Zealand was named the Pac-12 Tournament Most Outstanding Player, was an All-Pac-12 selection, a Pac-12 All-Defensive Team honorable mention selection and Academic All-America Second Team selection. Leger-Walker started all 30 games she appeared in and averaged 17.7 ppg, 5.5 rpg and 4.1 apg while shooting at a 40.3% clip including 68 made threes. Murekatete earns her second Preseason All-Pac-12 accolade after being named to honorable mention prior to last season where she went on to earn All-Pac-12 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 a season ago 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 ANN MEYERS DRYSDALE, NAISMITH TROPHY 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. The Atlanta Tipoff Club administers the Naismith Awards, which have become the most prestigious national honors in all of college basketball. Named in honor of Dr. James Naismith, inventor of the game of basketball, the Naismith Trophy recognizes the top Men's and Women's College Basketball Players of the Year. Leger-Walker was a Midseason Top-30 finalist for the award last season.

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, Head Coach Kamie Ethridge announced Wednesday. "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," 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, finishing second on the team and eighth in the Pac-12 Conference with 59 made three-pointers. The fifth-year senior from Tartu, Estonia earned 2022-23 Pac-12 Academic Honor Roll accolades for the second straight season and also was named to the CSC Academic All-District Team while majoring in general studies.

BEYONCE BEA TRANSFERS TO WSU
WSU announced the addition of graduate transfer Beyonce Bea after an illustrious career at nearby Idaho in May. She will have one year of eligibility at Washington State. Beyonce Bea, pronounced Be-Ontz Bee, is from Washougal, Wash., finished her Idaho career third all-time in scoring with 1,938 points and also pulled down 886 rebounds. Bea enters the 2023-24 season sixth out of all active NCAA Division I players in career points and 10th in career rebounds. Bea 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 and the tenth-most points (685) 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.