FARGO, N.D. (March 27, 2025) – Washington State women's basketball dropped its WNIT Super 16 matchup with North Dakota State 59-51 Thursday night.
The Cougars (21-14, 14-6 WCC) overcame a first quarter scoring drought to even the game in the second and hold leads in the third and fourth quarters, but were thwarted again by the Bison down the stretch and ran out of time.
Eleonora Villa and
Alex Covill led the offense with 14 points each while
Astera Tuhina led with 10 boards. Covill added three blocks and four rebounds.
Tara Wallack led with five blocks and
Kyra Gardner chipped in three blocks
Candace Kpetikou added four points, six rebounds and a block,
Charlotte Abraham scored six, and
Marta Alsina grabbed six boards.
After a pair of layups from Covill, NDSU connected for a couple of threes to put them ahead 10-4 with under five to go in the first. WSU trailed by as many as 12, 16-4, but five points from
Eleonora Villa in the final 30 seconds of the first quarter made it a 16-9 game.
Eleonora Villa and Covill went to work in the second to cut into the Bison lead, each making layups before a Villa three tied things up at 18-all. As time ticked down towards halftime, a Wallack layup gave the Cougs a 20-18 lead before WSU went into halftime trailing 26-24.
WSU quickly evened things up as teams continued to throw punches when back-to-back threes from Abraham put the Cougs ahead 36-35. NDSU answered with a three of their own, and Kpetikou nailed a jumper to send the game into the final quarter locked at 38-38.
In the fourth, layups from Tuhina and Kpetikou put WSU ahead 42-38 and then Covill and Gardner layups stretched the lead to 48-42 with 7:14 to play. NDSU worked their way back, though, moving back ahead 51-48 with 3:30 remaining.
Astera Tuhina connected for a late trey to halt a 17-0 Bison run, but the Cougars ran out of time to work their way back, falling 59-51.
RECORD BOOK CLIMBERS AND MILESTONE CHASERS
- Tara Wallack's four points puts her at 1,289 for her career, moving up to 13th in program history.
- With 36 minutes today, Wallack has become the program's first to reach 4,000 minutes, finishing her career with 4,012 minutes played.
- Wallack recorded five blocks, and now has 167 career blocks, second all-time at WSU.
- Wallack had three rebounds, putting her at 669 career boards, ninth all time at WSU.
- With three blocks, Alex Covill has 115 career blocks, seventh all-time in program history.
- Head Coach Kamie Ethridge has 199 career wins as a head coach, one away from 200.
NOTES
- With 13 blocks tonight, the team finished one shy of matching the program record of 14 in a game, which they matched earlier this season with 14 blocks at San Diego on Dec. 19, 2024.
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