Women’s basketball: EWU, GU boast plenty of talent
The local women’s college basketball rivalry season starts in earnest today when Gonzaga travels about 17 miles to take on Eastern Washington in Cheney.
It’s a matchup of two teams which find themselves 3-2 on the season with losses in games they wish they had back.
“They are a really good team,” Gonzaga coach Lisa Fortier said of the Eagles. “Their starting five are as good as any we have seen. They shoot the ball. They are athletic. They’ve got a couple big wins.”
Eastern has early wins over Wichita State and Utah Valley before losing two Texas road games at Southern Methodist on Nov. 22 and Abilene Christian on Nov. 24. The Eagles rebounded with an 83-70 win over Central Washington on Sunday.
The Bulldogs opened the season with wins against No. 22 Dayton, Idaho State and Montana State before they got tripped up 59-56 by previously winless American last Friday. The next day, the Zags’ late comeback fell short in the 79-67 loss to then-No. 17 Iowa.
“We probably were not going to have an undefeated season,” Fortier said. “I talked to my team and told them that every single game matters. You can’t mess around with teams that are talented and wait until the last minute.”
Enter an Eagles team that has four players scoring in double figures and a sophomore point guard in Jade Redmon who is averaging six assists per game. Fortier said she’s hoping that the Zags will not become EWU’s next big win.
“That is not in our game plan,” she said. “But they play us tough every single year. They are a good local rivalry.”
Cougar pride
The hottest local Division I women’s basketball team appears to be 5-2 Washington State, which also beat No. 22 Dayton and beat then-No. 10 Maryland on Saturday. The Cougars’ only losses came to then-No. 16 Nebraska and Michigan.
It was “an exciting win against Maryland,” coach June Daugherty said. “I really felt our team came together and played extremely hard. We got great contributions not just from our starters but from several players off the bench.”
The dynamic scoring tandem of Lia Galdeira and Tia Presley (Gonzaga Prep) are matching the lofty scoring numbers of last year and the Cougars are getting quality minutes from 6-foot-2 freshman forward Louise Brown, of Melbourne, Australia. Brown is second on the team with 6.6 rebounds per game and eight blocks.
“This was a young lady who was ranked second in the world as far as international players available last year,” Daugherty said of Brown. “She’s very long and aggressive. That is something that has helped us in our rebounding category.”
Coming off one of the program’s biggest wins, Daugherty said she’s trying to avoid a letdown that followed several victories last year.
“It’s something we have been drilling into their heads all year,” she said. “I think our upper classmen have reminded themselves and their teammates that we have to get better every single day. So hopefully, we won’t see the ebbs and flows that we saw last year.”
The Cougars play at UC Santa Barbara on Thursday before traveling to Spokane for the annual showdown with Gonzaga next Tuesday.
I have “great respect for Gonzaga and their staff and program,” Daugherty said. “We are excited that we can continue to have them on the schedule. But we have some work to do before we can give them our full attention.”
Vandal tests
Coming off a 25-9 season and its second straight NCAA tournament bid, the Idaho Vandals find themselves with the same 3-2 record as EWU and Gonzaga.
The Vandals opened with a loss at Cal-State Northridge and a 47-44 win over UC Santa Barbara before returning home and losing a 58-52 game to San Diego.
The Vandals then went back on the road to beat Wyoming last Tuesday and Seattle University on Saturday.
But it gets no easier for the Vandals who travel to take on No. 17 Oregon on Thursday. Idaho then returns home Saturday to play Multnomah before traveling to Waco, Texas, next Wednesday to play No. 11 Baylor.