SAN DIEGO, Calif. (December 19, 2024) – Washington State women's basketball rolled to a 65-42 victory over San Diego to open league play Thursday night.

The Cougars (6-6, 1-0 WCC) had 10 different scorers on the night, with four in double-figures, while connecting for nine threes as a team.

On the defensive end, WSU matched a program record with 14 blocks to go with seven steals.

Tara Wallack paced the team in the scoring column with 13 points, going 6-of-12 from the floor with five rebounds, four assists, and two steals.

Eleonora Villa put up 12 points, and a pair of rebounds while Charlotte Abraham had 10 points and five boards.

Astera Tuhina finished with 11 points, four rebounds and two assists.

Marta Alsina recorded a career-high five blocks while grabbing two steals and four rebounds.

Kyra Gardner knocked down a pair of threes while Candace Kpetikou and Alex Covill each put up three blocks.

After slow starts from both teams, layups from Abraham and Wallack countered a pair of threes from USD to even the game at 6-6 before a Wallack jumper and an Eleonora Villa three capped a 14-0 run, sending WSU into the second quarter with a 14-9 lead.

Tuhina put up five quick points to start the second with a trey and a floater to extend the lead to 19-11, and then Wallack got hot with seven-straight points before an Eleonora Villa layup and Abraham triple in the final seconds of the period gave WSU a 33-21 lead at halftime. 

The Cougs kept shooting it out of the locker room as big threes from Abraham and Eleonora Villa helped extend the lead to 44-25. WSU continued having success with the three-ball as a Tuhina triple pushed the lead over 20, and then Gardner connected from deep at the end of the quarter to help push the lead to 56-31 entering the fourth quarter. 

A Kpetikou jumper and another Gardner trey put the Cougs on an 11-0 run and made it 61-31 midway through the fourth before going on to win 65-42.

RECORD BOOK CLIMBERS AND MILESTONE CHASERS
•    Tara Wallack's 13 points put her at 1,019 for her career, ranking 21st in program history.
•    Wallack's sits at 125 career blocks, sixth all-time at WSU.
•    With 23 minutes today, Wallack has played 3,228 career minutes, 37 away from entering the WSU all-time top-10 list.
•    Wallack is also 732 minutes away from matching the most in program history.
•    Alex Covill's three block gives her 83 career blocks, 10 away from entering the WSU all-time top-10 list.

NOTES
•    Wallack is now nine assists from 200 for her career, which would give her 1,000+ points, 500+ rebounds and 200+ steals.
•    Marta Alsina had the third 5+ block performance by a Coug this season.
•    The team's 14 blocks matched their program record, dating back to Feb. 25, 2017 in their 14-block win over Colorado.

UP NEXT
The Cougars will return to Pullman after the holiday break to continue WCC play, hosting Pepperdine on  Saturday, Dec. 28 at 12 p.m. noon before hitting the road again to play at Pacific on Monday, Dec. 30 at 6 p.m. Both games will be broadcast live on ESPN+.

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