Washington State University Athletics
Cougars Open Rivalry Week Friday at Washington
WASHINGTON STATE at WASHINGTON
7:30 p.m. • Friday • Feb. 20, 2015
Alaska Airlines Arena (10,000) • Seattle• Pac-12 Networks
COUGARS OPEN RIVALRY WEEK FRIDAY AT WASHINGTON
Washington State (14-11, 5-9 Pac-12) renews its rivalry with two games against the University of Washington (19-7, 8-6 Pac-12) this week, traveling to Seattle for a Friday matchup at 7:30 p.m. before returning to Pullman for a Sunday contest at 1 p.m. Both games will be televised on the Pac-12 Networks.
COMING UP
The Cougars will wrap up the regular-season hosting UCLA next Thursday at USC next Saturday.
LISTEN IN
Follow the Cougars on Pullman’s KHTR (104.3 FM), KQQQ 1150 AM or go to WSUCougars.com and listen online to Steve Grubbs call the play-by-play for the Cougs.
COUGAR BASKETBALL ON THE WEB
Connect with Washington State University Athletics on the web at WSUCougars.com, the official website of Cougar Athletics. Every Cougar home game will be webstreamed at Pac-12.org.
FOLLOW THE COUGS ON TWITTER
Follow Washington State women’s basketball on twitter @WSUWomensHoops and June Daugherty @CoachJuneD.
COUGAR NOTES
• Last Sunday’s victory at Utah gave June Daugherty career win No. 400 • WSU entered the week with an RPI of 67 after posting an RPI of 60 last season and 151 in 2012-13 • In Charlie Creme’s latest Bracketology released Monday, WSU appeared as one of the “First Four Out” • According to Jeff Sagarin’s RPIratings.com, WSU is ranked No. 59 while playing the 23rd-toughest schedule • WSU owns wins over two ranked teams (No. 22 Dayton, No. 8 Maryland), notched wins over four ranked teams last season • WSU owns two of the top five scorers in the Pac-12, Lia Galdeira is second at 19.9 ppg and Tia Presley is fifth at 16.8 ppg • Galdeira owns a Pac-12-best 85 steals, fourth-most in the country • In Pac-12 games only, Galdeira also leads the league in scoring (20.6 ppg) and steals (48, 3.4 spg) • Both Galdeira and Presley sit among the Top-7 all-time scorers in WSU history • Senior center Shalie Dheensaw will miss the remainder of the season with a right knee injury
ABOUT WASHINGTON STATE
Washington State owns a 14-11 overall record including a 5-9 mark in Pac-12 Conference play after splitting its mountain road tip last weekend, dropping a 72-51 contest at Colorado Friday before bouncing back with a 61-52 victory over Utah Sunday. WSU has come close to knocking off three of the top-4 teams in the Pac-12 this season, falling to Stanford in Pullman 86-76 in overtime, dropping a 73-70 decision to Oregon State in Corvallis, a 57-54 heartbreaker in Berkeley and a 61-56 decision to Oregon State. WSU went 9-2 in nonconference play, recording one of the biggest wins in program history, beating No. 10/8 Maryland at the San Juan Shootout in Puerto Rico. The Cougars are led by All-Pac-12 guards Tia Presley and Lia Galdeira who among the Pac-12’s scoring leaders. Galdeira is second with 19.9 ppg and Presley sits fifth at 16.8 ppg. Last season, WSU earned the program’s first trip to the WNIT, the program’s first postseason tournament appearance since 1991 (NCAA Tournament) after going 17-17 including 9-9 in Pac-12 play and reached the Pac-12 Conference Tournament semifinals for the second time in the last three seasons.
WASHINGTON STATE-WASHINGTON SERIES
The University of Washington enters the week with a 19-7 overall record including an 8-6 mark in Pac-12 play after splitting last weekend’s road trip to the Mountain schools, falling to Utah, 69-61 before beating Colorado 79-67. Washington leads the all-time series with WSU 67-19, including a 34-12 mark in Seattle but the Cougars swept the season series last year, 82-80 in Pullman and 85-76 in Seattle. Washington State snapped a 36-game losing streak to its cross-state rivals and notched its first season sweep since the 1974-75 season. Sophomore guard Kelsey Plum paces the Pac-12 in scoring at 23.2 ppg, sixth-best in the country. Head coach Mike Neighbors is in his second season at Washington.
COUGARS AMONG CONFERENCE LEADERS
The Cougars entered the week leading the Pac-12 Conference in turnover margin (+6.6), ninth-best in the country after forcing 20-plus turnovers 12 times this season. WSU also leads the conference in steals (10.3), highlighted by a 20-steal game against Colorado in Pullman, and rank third in free throw percentage (73.9). Two Cougars are in the Pac-12’s top five in scoring, Lia Galdeira second at 19.9 ppg and Tia Presley fifth at 16.8 ppg. Galdeira also leads the league in steals (85) and is sixth in the country with 3.5 steals-per-game while Presley comes into the game fifth in the league in steals with 52 (2.1). In Pac-12 games, Galdeira paces the league in scoring at 20.6 ppg after posting eight 20-point efforts in conference play and also owns the lead in steals with 48, 3.4 spg.
DYNAMIC DUO AT IT AGAIN
Tia Presley and Lia Galdeira picked up where they left off last season, filling up the stat sheet on both ends of the court. Galdeira has led the team in scoring 15 times, Presley has posted a team-high nine times and each own a 30-point game this season. Galdeira owns 14 20+ efforts and recorded her season-high 33 point performance in the upset of No. 10/8 Maryland in Puerto Rico while Presley has recorded seven 20-point efforts this season highlighted by a 36-point game in the road win over Hampton. The Cougars are 12-6 when Galdeira OR Presley score 20-points this season and 7-1 all-time when BOTH score 20-points including 3-0 this season (Idaho State, at Arizona, at Oregon). Both All-Pac-12 guards entered the week among the top-7 in WSU career scoring. Galdeira recently passed Jenni Ruff for second in WSU history and now owns 1,568 career points, 399 points away from Jeanne Eggart’s (1977-82) top mark of 1,967. Galdeira also sits second in career 3-pointers (145), third in career steals (251) and fifth in career made free throws (291). Presley currently sits seventh in career scoring (1,426), third in career made free throws (328) and ninth in career starts (92).
PRESLEY NAMED TO NANCY LIEBERMAN AWARD WATCH LIST
Tia Presley was named to the Nancy Lieberman Award Watch List Feb. 6. The award recognizes the top point guard in women’s NCAA Division I college basketball. Candidates exhibit the floor leadership, play-making and ball-handling skills of Hall of Famer Nancy Lieberman. Presley is one of 31 players named to list that includes five players from the Pac-12 Conference. Presley enters Sunday fifth in the Pac-12 in scoring (16.8 ppg) and in steals (52). The Spokane, Wash. native has scored in double-figures 20 times this season including eight 20-point efforts. The list will be narrowed down to fifteen and then a final five by mid-March. The Lieberman Award winner will be announced during the WBCA Award Show in Tampa, Fla. at the Women’s Final Four.
PRESLEY EARNED PAC-12 PLAYER OF THE WEEK AFTER ROAD WIN
Tia Presley earned Pac-12 Conference Player of the Week Dec. 9 after scoring a game-high 21 points in the 59-58 road victory over Gonzaga. Presley scored 18 of her points in the second half as WSU erased a 10-point halftime deficit to post their second straight win over the Bulldogs in Spokane. The Spokane, Wash. native scored the go-ahead layup with 35 seconds left. It was the second career Pac-12 weekly accolade for Presley.
VETERANS HEAT UP
A couple of veteran players stepped up their game in Pac-12 play. Junior point guard Dawnyelle averaged 4.3 ppg and shot 16 percent from behind-the-arc in nonconference play but heated up in conference games, averaging 5.5 ppg and shot a team-best 52 percent from the floor and 52 percent from behind the arc in Pac-12 games. Junior forward Mariah Cooks also took her game up a notch with the start of league play, posting 7.9 ppg and 5.1 rpg in conference games, recording her first career double-double with 13 points and 14 rebounds against California, 15 points against Colorado, 13 points at Stanford before erupting for a career-high 19 points against Oregon. In the nine games since losing senior center Shalie Dheensaw for the season with a knee injury, Cooks has averaged 9.4 ppg and 5.3 rpg while freshman forward Louise Brown has averaged a team-best 7.4 rpg and with blocked 11 shots.
NEWCOMERS MAKE IMMEDIATE IMPACT
A couple Cougar newcomers have produced in their first year in a Washington State uniform. Freshman forward Louise Brown is second on the team with 25 blocks and in rebounding at 6.2 rpg. Brown stepped in as a starter for the injured Shalie Dheensaw, recording six points, seven rebounds and one block in her first career start at Oregon. She has since posted 10 points and five rebounds in the win over Utah, 11 rebounds at California, eight points and eight boards against Oregon, 10 rebounds against Oregon State and grabbed 11 more boards last Friday at Colorado. Earlier this season, Brown recorded seven points and 10 boards against Nebraska, and 13 points, nine rebounds and four blocks at Hampton. Freshman guard Pinelopi Pavlopoulou has played valuable minutes behind point guard Dawnyelle Awa, scoring eight points and grabbing six boards in the win over Dayton and connected on three 3-pointers against No. 15 Stanford. Freshman center Bianca Blanaru set a WSU single-game freshman record with five blocks against Idaho State.
DHEENSAW TO MISS REMAINDER OF THE SEASON
Senior center Shalie Dheensaw, who had started 50 straight games, will miss the remainder of the season after suffering a right knee injury on the final play in the 73-70 loss at Oregon State. The Vancouver, B.C. native was third on the team in scoring (8.6), 10th in the Pac-12 in rebounding (7.2) and fourth in blocks (29). Dheensaw owns seven career double-doubles with two coming this season including a 14-point 10-rebound performance against Oregon State. Dheensaw had a breakout junior campaign last season, averaging 8.1 ppg, 6.6 rpg and shooting over 48 percent from the field while posting four double-doubles in Pac-12 play. The Vancouver, B.C. native finished the season with a team-high 38 blocks, fifth-most in the Pac-12 and five double-doubles.
COUGARS COMEBACK TO STEAL GAME FROM COLORADO
Washington State erased a 10-point halftime deficit to defeat Colorado 73-68. Down 12 early in the second half, were down by eight with five minutes remaining but used a 13-0 run to post its largest comeback win of the season. WSU scored 25 points off of 27 CU turnovers and made a season-best 20 steals, seven from Lia Galdeira and six from Tia Presley. WSU also sank 33-of-39 free throws, fourth-most makes in WSU single-game history.
COUGARS RECEIVE VOTES IN NATIONAL POLLS
Washington State appeared in the receiving votes category of a Top-25 national poll earlier this season. The Cougars received votes in the USA Today Coaches’ Poll towards the end of last season for the first time since midway through the 1991-92 season.
LAST SEASON’S LIA AND TIA SHOW
Guards Lia Galdeira and Tia Presley were both named to the All-Pac-12 Team as voted on by the Pac-12 coaches last season, becoming the first Cougar teammates to earn all-conference honors in the same season in program history. Presley led WSU with 13 20-point games including five 30-point efforts and tallied 647 points, second-most in single-season history. The Spokane native led the team in shooting pct. (44.4), was second in steals (56) and averaged a team-best 17.9 ppg during conference play. Galdeira averaged 18.5 ppg, was second in the Pac-12 in steals with 80, notched 12 20-point performances and her 62 three-pointers were the third-most in single-season history. She finished the season with 611 points, fourth-most in WSU single-season history and became the 15th member of WSU’s 1,000-point club, doing so in 61 games, second-fastest by a Cougar, Jeanne Eggart reached the mark in 57 games. The duo combined for 1,258 points, the highest-scoring tandem in WSU history.
COUGARS BEAT NO. 22/22 DAYTON IN SEASON-OPENER
WSU opened the 2014-15 season with a convincing 76-60 victory over visiting No. 22/22 Dayton. The Cougars forced 30 Flyer turnovers and held Dayton, an NCAA Tournament team the last five seasons, to 31 percent shooting. WSU tallied 28 points off of turnovers, recorded 13 steals and received 19 points from its bench.
WSU UPSETS NO. 10/8 MARYLAND IN PUERTO RICO
Led by Lia Galdeira’s 33 points, WSU defeated No. 10/8 Maryland 70-64 at the San Juan Shootout in Puerto Rico. The victory was the highest-ranked opponent the Cougars have beaten in program history, as the previously-undefeated Terrapins (6-1) entered the game ranked No. 8 in the USA Today Coaches Poll. The Cougars held Maryland to its lowest point total of the season (64) and forced 24 turnovers.
COUGARS ADD THREE DYNAMIC SCORERS WITH 2015 SIGNING CLASS
WSU signed three to National Letters of Intent in November, 6-0 guard Borislava Hristova (Varna, Bulgaria), 6-4 center Maria Kostourkova (Lisbon, Portugal) and 5-11 guard Alexys Swedlund (Rapid City, S.D.) will join the program next season. Hristova earned MVP honors of the 2014 U18 European Championship for Bulgaria, averaging 27.9 ppg, 7.4 rpg and 2.3 apg and is rated the No. 1 overall international collegiate prospect for her age. At the U18 European Championships, Kostourkova averaged 13.9 ppg, 10.6 rpg and is ranked the third-best international collegiate prospect. Swedlund, a two-time All-State selection, averaged 20.3 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 2.4 apg and 3.1 spg while hitting a state-record 64 three-pointers as a junior, earning Girls Basketball Athlete of the Year by South Dakota Sports Buzz.
