The Washington State Cougars Women’s Basketball Program is in a bit of a swoon. After winning over 20 games each season between 2022 and 2024, the Cougars finished last season with a 9-25 record. The nine wins is the lowest of Coach Kamie Ethridge’s nine season at the helm. The good news for her is she returned all starters from last year’s team. The bad news is she may have needed a talent influx to improve the win total.
With Mjracle Sheppard still nursing a mild ankle sprain, Ruby Perkins earned the start at point guard. Cal led 16-11 at the end of the first period. Early on, the Golden Bears showed a concerted effort to feed the ball to starting C Albina Syla on drive and dish action. She started 1-of-4 from close range in the first five minutes of game time, but added two defensive blocks over that span. Backup center Jovana Jevtovic did not fare much better, starting 1-of-3 from close range in the first period.
Cal’s shooting came alive in the second period. For the quarter, Lulu Twidale scored 8 points on perfect 3-of-3 shooting to lead the Bears with 13 points at halftime. On the defensive end, Cal’s aggressive man defense limited the Cougars to 28% shooting (10-of-36), including only 3-of-12 from long range. Cal outrebounded WSU by 11 as the Cougars had zero second chance points. Cal led 37-24 at the half.
Early in the thrid quarters with Cal leading 42-26, an eight point WSU run cut the lead in half as WSU seemed to gain momentum. Cal responded with a 12-2 scoring run to push the lead back up to 54-36. Consecutive 3-pointers from Lulu Twidale and Zara Russell energized the crowd, and forced WSU to call a timeout to regroup. WSU ended the quarter well, but trailed Cal by fifteen going into the final period. Cal led 60-45.
WSU was never able to cut the lead below a dozen in the final period, as Cal closed out the 80-58 victory in routine fashion.
Lulu Twidale paced the Bears with 26 points on 9-of-16 shooting, and 8 rebounds. She was in control and confident the whole game, and played with a ‘just try to stop me’ swagger across 34 minutes.
Notes and Observations
Lulu on her confidence and game flow tonight;
”The coaches talked to me a lot about just letting it come letting it come, and I think that really helped me..... I try and go into every game with the mindset that I’m feeling good. And then, I think, once I see my first three, go through. It’s like a good feeling.”
For as good as Ruby Perkins looked in the exhibition games, she struggled a bit to get into the game flow tonight. She finished with a solid 4 points and 7 rebounds across 29 minutes, but it was not until the second half where it looked like she was fully comfortable.
Outside of Lulu’s 6-of-9 shooting, Cal shot 2-of-11 from long range. Gisella Maul was 0-for-5 and will look to rebound Wednesday Thursday night.
Shannon Dowell impressed. With the ball in her hands as an initiator, she has the dribble and speed control in the lane to find her shot. She still needs to improve finishing at the rim, but her silky smooth pull up jumper makes up for it. She finished with 17 points and 7 rebounds.
Cal limited WSU to 35% shooting, and won the rebounding battle 48 to 34. Even so, Coach Smith challenged her team to be better defensively going forward;
I know who we’re trying to guard. I know who we’re trying to stop, uh, moving forward. It’s more players like {WSU’s Eleanor Villa, 20 points tonight on efficient shooting}. It’s the Hidalgo’s and the Kymora Johnson’s of the world that we need to be ready for. So, I’m really challenging us to be better defensively, individually, and collectively, because I think we can score, you know, we’re gonna we’re gonna put points on the board.”
Cal returns to Haas on Thursday night to face Long Beach State at 6pm.