Area roundup: WSU volleyball team headed back to NCAA Tournament

The Washington State volleyball team received on Sunday an at-large bid to the 64-team NCAA Tournament for the second straight season.

The Cougars, who finished the regular season at 17-15 overall and 6-14 for ninth place in the Pac-12 Conference, will play Florida State (18-10), which tied for fifth in the Atlantic Coast Conference, in the first round on Friday at 2:30 p.m. (Pacific) in Lincoln, Nebraska.

No. 5 seed and host school Nebraska (26-4) will play first-time participant Stony Brook (18-12) in the other first-rounder.

Friday’s winners will face off on Saturday.

This is the the 12th trip to the NCAA Tournament for the WSU program.

The Pac-12 led all conferences with nine teams selected for the tournament.

No. 8 seed Washington will host its first-round opponent, LIU Brooklyn, plus Hawaii and Illinois.

Women’s basketball

Washington State 63, Rutgers 60: Borislava Hristova scored 17 points and the Cougars rallied from a 14-point first-half deficit to beat Rutgers at the Gulf Coast Showcase in Estero, Florida.

The Cougars (3-4) trailed by 10 at halftime but outscored the Scarlet Knights (5-2) in the third quarter 23-10 for a 53-50 lead.

The game was tied when Caila Hailey scored her only points of the game on a layup to give WSU a 61-59 lead with 2:25 remaining. That was the last field goal of the game as Rutgers made a free throw before Hristova sank two with six seconds left.

Hristova led the Cougs in scoring for the fifth time in seven games. Alexys Swedlund added 14, Louise Brown 13 and Pinelopi Pavlopoulou 11. Pavlopoulou tied her career-best with six assists.

WSU shot a season-best 43.1 percent and made 10 of 19 from 3-point range while Rutgers was only 3 of 15 from the arc.

Men’s basketball

CC Spokane 71, Everett 60: Lamar Harris had 14 points and 10 rebounds, and the Sasquatch (3-0) used a big second half to rally by the Trojans (4-2) in the championship game of the Red Devil Classic in Longview, Washington.

George Pilimai scored 16 points for CCS with Cameron Gay adding 14 and Dedrick Pakootas 11.

Trailing 38-30 at halftime, the Sasquatch caught and passed Everett on a jumper by Pakootas with 5 1/2 minutes to go and closed the final 4:22 with a 10-0 run.

Isaiah Gotell of CCS was chosen tournament MVP and Pilimi and Cameron Gay made all-tournament team.