Everybody helped pitch in to get WSU onto the next round.
The Washington State Cougars advanced to the WBIT quarterfinals behind a strong 73-47 win over the Santa Clara Broncos.
While Astera Tuhina led the way with 14 points, Kyra Gardner and Jessica Clarke each tacked on double-digit points with 11 and 10 respectively. Beyonce Bea finished just two points shy of a double-double with eight points and 11 rebounds. All nine Cougs who entered the game, scored.
“There’s so many teams not playing right now and I think as this season, and this tournament, goes on, you have that little fog hanging over you for not making the tournament and then getting a win kind of starts making you feel better about yourself or just feeling more hopeful. And now this win really I think has our team excited just getting to play more.” Kamie Ethridge said. “Getting young players a lot of minutes, our older players getting their chance to get kind of in the record book for career wins for our program. I mean, I’m so proud of that to get to 20 wins and just the excitement that we get another opportunity to play again on Thursday and do something special.”
The Cougs settled themselves into the game early with Tara Wallack and Bella Murekatete each cashing a pair of free throws to give WSU a small lead. Wallack made it a 7-0 from the veterans with a trey to push the lead out to seven.
Santa Clara quickly answered with a pair of threes that sparked a 12-4 Bronco run to take their first lead of the game at 14-13. But the Cougs refused to let the Broncos walk into the second frame with a lead. Gardner splashed a trey and Bea ended the first quarter with a layup to steal the lead away.
The Broncos fought hard early to keep WSU from getting too far ahead, tying the game on two occasions four minutes into the second quarter. But, in the back half of the second quarter, WSU broke through. Tuhina helped spark the momentum changing run on a drive to the hoop, getting a defender in the air off a spin move, and banking in the short jumper. After an Alex Covill second chance bucket, Tuhina struck again, rolling off a Murekatete screen and hitting a fall away midrange to put WSU up six. Tess Heal snapped the run with a layup for the Broncos, but Clarke and Bea teamed up for buckets inside to send WSU into the half up eight.
Again, Santa Clara did their best to try and limit WSU from building too much of a lead early in the third quarter, not letting WSU grab a double-digit lead. Eventually, a 6-0 run led by a Wallack beating her defender off the dribble for a layup, a short Clarke floater and a pair of Jenna Villa free throws put WSU up 11 heading into the final 10 minutes.
In the final frame, WSU left no doubt.
Gardner kicked things off with a nifty fadeaway middy before Clarke took advantage of the mismatch and muscled her way in for a bucket. Tuhina pushed the lead out to 15 with a corner trey and a long two from the top of the arc. Murekatete got in on the fun, finding the open space underneath for a layup inside and Gardner kept it rolling after collecting an offensive rebound and finding herself wide open from beyond the arc to make it an 18-point lead.
Heal again tried to will the Broncos into a late rally with back-to-back buckets, but WSU delivered the knockout blow with a 14-0 run from Wallack, Ele Villa, Gardner, Tuhina and Clarke to turn a solid win, into a 26-point blowout win.
WSU’s season keeps on going on Thursday night at 6 p.m. when they welcome in the Toledo Rockets for the team’s final game at Beasley Coliseum.
