Cougs open final road trip of the season this Thursday at No. 17/16 UCLA

February 22, 2023 | By: Washington State Athletic Communications

LOS ANGELES – The Washington State women's basketball team hits the road for the final time during the 2022-23 regular season this Thursday, Feb. 23, as the Cougars head to Los Angeles to take on No. 17/No. 16-ranked UCLA. Tip-off from Pauley Pavilion is set for 6 p.m. PT and will air live on Pac-12 Los Angeles.

Starting Five
>> Washington State enters the final week of the 2022-23 regular season sporting an 18-9 overall record, while the Cougars are an even 8-8 in Pac-12 Conference play. The 18 wins are tied with the 1990-91 NCAA Tournament team for the third most wins in a season in program history. The 18 victories are also the second-most wins collected by Washington State in the NCAA era (Post 1982) and are just one victor shy from matching last season's record-setting squad win total.

>> The Cougars look to end the regular season on a high note on the road, as Washington State comes into the weekend sporting an 8-3 record in true road games this season. This year's .727 winning percentage in true road games marks the program's highest winning percentage in road contests in a season in the NCAA era. The last time WSU won at least 70 percent of its road games in a season came back during the 1978-79 campaign when the Cougars went 13-5 (.706) away from Pullman.

>> Washington State and UCLA will be meeting for the 71st time on the hardwood. The Bruins lead the all-time series 70-10, though the two teams have split each of the last four games played against them. UCLA defeated the Cougars earlier this season, as the Bruins scored a 73-66 victory over the Cougs in Pullman back on Jan. 22. WSU has never won in Pauley Pavilion, as the Cougars are 0-34 against the Bruins in Los Angeles.

>> WSU has a chance to post a winning record in Pac-12 play for the second consecutive season heading into the final week of the season. The Cougars are currently 8-8 in league play and need to go 2-0 in Los Angeles this week to post back-to-back winning seasons in Pac-12 play for the first time in program history.

>> WSU has secured its place in the first round at the 2023 Pac-12 Women's Basketball Tournament, which will take place March 1-5 at the Michelob ULTRA Arena at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. The Cougars enter the final week of the regular season currently seventh in the Pac-12 league standings. Washington State can finish anywhere between fifth and eighth in the Pac-12 standings depending on the results of this week's contest.

Game Coverage
Friday's game against UCLA will be broadcast live on Pac-12 Network Los Angeles with Tracy Warren and Tammy Blackburn on the call. Fans can listen to Steve Grubbs call all the action locally at 1150 AM or anywhere at WSUCougars.com.

NET Ranking
Washington State heads into the weekend sporting a NET ranking of 41. The NET ranking is an evaluation tool used by the NCAA Selection Committee to determine at-large bids and tournament seedings. Last season, the Cougars ended the season with a NET ranking of 58 and earned an at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament for a second-straight season. WSU was a No. 8 seed in last season's NCAA Tournament.

Bella's Balling
Senior Bella Murekatete is in the midst of one of the best stretches of her WSU career, as the 6-3 post player is averaging 18.0 points per game over the last three games. The Butare Huye, Rwanda native is shooting 53.7 percent from the field during the three-game double-digit scoring streak. Her 19-point outing against Oregon State last Sunday marked the fourth time this season that Murekatete has scored 19 or more points against a Pac-12 opponent.

Ula'a Tying the Games Played Record
When fifth-year senior Ula Motuga takes the court against UCLA this week, she will tie Sage Romberg (2010-14) for Washington State's all-time games played record at 129. Motuga's 128 career games place her in a tie with Brandi Thomas (2010-14) and Pinelopi Pavlopoulou (2014-18) for the second-most games played in WSU history.

Motuga is Also Racking Up the Minutes
Not only is WSU's games played record in her sights, but Ula Motuga is also moving up the program's minutes played list. Her 3,651 career minutes are the second most played in program history. WSU's all-time leading scorer Borislava Hristova holds the program's minutes played record with 3,960 career minutes logged with the Cougs.

Charlisse Gearing to Pass Chanelle
Charlisse Leger-Walker is on the cusp of passing one of the all-time Cougar greats on the program's all-time scoring list, as she is 10 points away from passing Chanelle Molina (1,364; 2016-20) for ninth. Leger-Walker heads into the weekend with 1,355 career points, which is 10th all-time in Washington State history.

Scouting the Bruins
UCLA heads into Thursday's game against the Cougars ranked No. 17 in the Associated Press Top-25 Poll and No. 16 in the USA Today/WBCA Coaches Poll. The Bruins are 21-7 overall this season and 10-6 in Pac-12 play. UCLA is coming off a 71-66 loss at No. 3 Stanford this past Monday but had won four-straight games coming prior to that.

Senior Charisma Osborne leads the Bruins in scoring at 15.2 points per game. The 5-9 guard is riding a five-game double-digit scoring streak coming into Thursday's game against WSU. Freshman Kiki Rice is also averaging double figures for UCLA at 11.3 points per contest. Fellow freshman Londynn Jones, the reigning Pac-12 Freshman of the Week, is putting up 9.4 points per game.

The Bruins are averaging 70.7 points per game while shooting 39.7 percent from the field and 30.8 percent from behind the arc. Teams are putting up 61.5 points per contest against UCLA this season. The Bruins are holding teams to 38.1 percent from the floor, while the opposition is hitting 31.9 percent on 3-point field goals.

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