SANTA CLARA, Calif. (January 18, 2025) – Washington State women's basketball was in control from start to finish Saturday afternoon, defeating Santa Clara 74-47.

The Cougars (12-8, 7-2 WCC) won on the boards, outrebounding the Broncos 48-34 while holding them to 26.2 percent shooting from the field.

WSU shot 46.7 percent from the floor, going 28-of-60 and outscoring Santa Clara 17-8 on second chance points and 15-3 on points off turnovers.

Alex Covill led the offense with a career-high 21 points to go with a block and three rebounds.

Candace Kpetikou led the team with three blocks and eight rebounds while also scoring in double-figures with 10 points.

Eleonora Villa scored 12 points on the day and had two rebounds, two assists, a block and a steal.

Dayana Mendes shared the team lead with eight boards to go along with nine points and a block.

Astera Tuhina also hauled in eight rebounds, dished out five assists and grabbed a steal.

Jenna Villa finished with eight points, two rebounds and two assists, and Tara Wallack had six boards four points and two assists.

Covill opened the scoring with three early layups to get WSU out to a quick 8-4 lead. Then free throws from Covill and Marta Alsina along with a pair of Kpetikou layups gave the Cougs a 17-14 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Wazzu began to stretch out their lead from there, outscoring the Broncos 22-3 in the second quarter, starting with a 3-point play from Mendes before layups from Covill and Kyra Gardner and a Jenna Villa three extended the advantage to 33-16 with 3:19 to go until halftime. Jenna Villa added a pair of free throws in between a couple of Eleonora Villa layups to cap the first half with WSU on top, 39-17.

Jenna Villa splashed another three out of the break to extend the Cougar lead to 25 points before buckets from Eleonora Villa and Covill made it 51-27 midway through the third. Layups from Kpetikou and Mendes kept things rolling, and a jumper from Wallack in the final seconds of the third put the Cougs up 59-33.

In the fourth quarter, WSU got familiar with the free throw line, sinking five free throws to hold a 64-43 lead with 5:24 to play. Alice Dart checked in with a layup and then makes from Covill and Gardner gave the Cougars their largest lead of the game, 72-44, before going on to win 74-47.

RECORD BOOK CLIMBERS AND MILESTONE CHASERS  

• Tara Wallack's four points put her at 1,105 for her career, ranking 19th in program history. 
• With 24 minutes tonight, Wallack has played 3,501 career minutes, sixth all-time at WSU. 
• Wallack is also 459 minutes away from matching the most in program history. 
• Tonight's start was the 100th of Wallack's career. 
• Alex Covill's one block today put her at 96 career blocks, 10th all-time at WSU.
• Coach Ethridge now has 190 career wins as a head coach, 10 from 200.

NOTES

• WSU's 48 rebounds was a season-high, and the most in a game for the Cougs since hauling in 56 rebounds on Nov. 29, 2023 against Texas A&M Commerce.
• WSU improved to 7-1 this season when scoring over 70 points, and 4-0 when allowing under 50.
• The Cougs also improved to 9-4 when shooting 40 percent or better from the floor, and 9-0 when holding their opponent to under 40 percent.

UP NEXT
The Cougs open up a stretch of five games in nine days, starting with a home/road split next weekend as they host Portland in Pullman on Thursday, Jan. 23 before hitting the road to take on LMU on Saturday, Jan. 25 at 2 p.m. and Oregon State on Monday, Jan. 27 at 7 p.m. All three games will be broadcast live on ESPN+.
   
FOLLOW US
For more information on the Washington State women's basketball team, follow @WSUCougarWBB on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.