MALIBU, Calif. (February 27, 2025) – Washington State women's basketball downed Pepperdine 57-49 Thursday afternoon to conclude the 2024-25 regular season with the best conference record in program history.

Although the Cougars (19-12, 14-6 WCC) didn't have their best shooting day, their defense stepped up, holding the Waves to 29 percent from the field and out-rebounded them 47 to 39.

Tara Wallack finished the day with 11 points and 10 rebounds for her fifth double-double of the season, and the ninth of her career.

Dayana Mendes led the offense with 14 points, to go with five rebounds, two assists, a block and a steal.

Eleonora Villa also scored in double-figures with 11 points and had six assists, four rebounds, a block and a steal.

Astera Tuhina tallied four rebounds and two assists to go along with five points.

Jenna Villa totaled six points, and Candace Kpetikou had seven rebounds.

After five early points from the Cougs including a three from Abraham, Pepperdine rattled off a 12-4 run to take a 14-9 lead, but a Mendes layup in the final minute of the first cut the Waves' lead to 14-11.

Wazzu began to heat up from beyond the arc as they would re-take the lead in the second quarter. WSU nailed four threes in the first five minutes of the second to take a 25-21 lead, and then a Kpetikou layup sent the Cougars into halftime with a 27-25 lead.

WSU outscored the Waves 17-11 in the third with triples from Abraham and Wallack extending the lead to 37-33 before a Jenna Villa trey and a layup from Tuhina sent the game into the fourth quarter with Wazzu leading 44-36.

The Cougars extended their lead to as many as 10 points midway through the fourth on buckets from Eleonora Villa and Wallack, 48-38, but Pepperdine began to chip away from there. An 8-0 spurt from the Waves got them back to within a possession, however, that was as close as WSU would let them get, going 3-of-4 from the free throw line in the final minute before Mendes dropped in a layup to seal the 57-49 win.

RECORD BOOK CLIMBERS AND MILESTONE CHASERS  

• Tara Wallack's 11 points puts her at 1,259 for her career, 14th in program history.
• Wallack has 159 career blocks, putting her all alone at second all-time at WSU.
• Wallack had 10 rebounds, putting her at 653 career boards, moving up to ninth all time at WSU.
• With 32 minutes today, Wallack has played 3,871 career minutes, third all-time at WSU.
• Wallack is also 89 minutes away from matching the most in program history.
• With the team's eight made 3-pointers today, WSU has made 224 threes this season, two shy of breaking the program's single-season record of 225 set in 2023-24.
• Coach Ethridge has 197 career wins as a head coach, three from 200.

NOTES

• With 23 attempts from beyond the arc today, WSU has taken 698 threes this season, surpassing the single-season program record of 686 (2016-17).

UP NEXT  
The Cougs have locked themselves in as a 3-seed for the WCC Tournament, and with a bye on Saturday, will have 10 days in between games before appearing in the WCC Tournament quarterfinals on Sunday, March 9.

FOLLOW US  
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