Next: On the road to Wazzu and UDub

The Cardinal heads north this week for its first games of the season against:

• Washington State in Pullman on Friday evening at 6:00.
• The University of Washington in Seattle on Sunday afternoon at 12:30

The WSU game will be televised by Pac-12 Networks and streamed online by Pac-12 Networks. The UW game will be televised by ESPNU. Both will be broadcast by KZSU. Click here for live stats.

Mikaela takes possession in Pullman last season

  Washington State Cougars

In her seventh season as head coach, June Daugherty, is steadily moving WSU women's basketball up towards the top tier of the Pac-12. After five years in the cellar, they finished in eighth place last season and are currently tied for fourth.

Daugherty challenged her team with a tough non-conference schedule again this season — Collegiate Basketball News ranked it the 21st toughest in the nation at the end of non-conference play. The Cougars won six of twelve, highlighted by an on-the-road upset of No. 10 Nebraska.

In conference play, the Cougars have defeated Washington twice (for the first time since 1975), Arizona State, USC, Colorado and Arizona and lost to UCLA, Oregon State, Oregon and Utah. Although they still have to play the Bay Area teams twice, they stand a good chance of splitting their remaining eight conference games and finishing above .500.

The Cougars have two of the top eight scorers in the Pac-12 (Tia and Lia), but as a team rank right in the middle of the conference, tied with Washington, with an average of 72.5 points per game.

The Cougars are adept at taking the ball away from their opponents, but careless about handling it themselves. They average 8.68 steals per game (third best in the Pac-12), but have more turnovers than assists (tied with Cal and Arizona for the worst assist/turnover ratio - 0.80).

The Cougars' biggest weak point is defense. On average, they allow their opponents to score 73.2 points per game, and they grab 3.5 fewer rebounds than their opponents — both those stats rank #11 in the Pac-12.

The Cougar starters are:

• #05, 5'9" junior guard Tia Presley who missed a third of her freshman season with a foot injury and almost half of last year with a torn ACL is now the Cougars' leading scorer. She's the sixth-best scorer in the Pac-12 with an average of 18.2 points per game. She takes some shots from beyond the arc, but most of her scoring is from the inside. She also averages 4.2 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 1.8 turnovers and 1.8 steals per game.


• #03, 5'11" sophomore guard Lia Galdeira is right behind Tia in a tie for seventh-best scorer in the Pac-12 with an average of 18.0 points per game. She's the Cougars' most prolific 3-point shooter with an average of 1.86 per game, which ranks eighth in the Pac-12. She also averages 4.7 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 2.6 turnovers and 2.62 steals (second-best in the Pac-12) per game.


• #22, 6'1" senior guard/forward Sage Romberg is the Cougars' most reliable 3-point shooter. She makes 43.1% of her shots from beyond the arc, which ranks third in the Pac-12. However, she doesn't take as many shots as Tia or Lia and averages 1.4 treys and 9.0 points per game. She's the Cougars' second-best rebounder (5.7 rpg) and shot blocker (1.05 bpg).


• #23, 6'4" junior forward/center Shalie Dheensaw is the Cougars' best rebounder (7.1 rpg) and shot blocker (1.18 bpg, sixth in the Pac-12). She averages 7.4 points per game and has tallied three double-doubles in conference play.


• #11, 5'9"sophomore guard Dawnyelle Awa runs the point for the Cougars. She makes 3.32 assists per game (#11 in the Pac-12) with a fairly good assist/turnover ratio of 1.62 (#8 in the Pac-12). She also averages 5.7 points, 2.8 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game.

WSU has a fairly deep bench with five players who average from nine to 17 minutes on the court per game. They contribute about 15 points and 10 rebounds per game.

WSU's win-loss record (12-10 overall, 6-4 conference) places them tied for fourth in the Pac-12, their RPI (69) places them seventh, and their strength of schedule rank (35) places them fifth.

Here are WSU's statistics and roster.

  University of Washington Huskies

What's ailing the Huskies?

They have excellent shooters (two of the top five scorers in the conference), a very good senior point guard and some decent defense, but they've slipped into the bottom half of the Pac-12 standings.

They've had an up and down season. They went 6-4 in non-conference play against fairly tough opponents. They've split their conference games with losses to WSU (twice), Arizona State, Oregon State and Oregon and wins over Colorado, Utah, Arizona and on the road last weekend over UCLA and USC.

The Huskies were #5 in the Pac-12 with a 21-12 record last season and advanced to the WNIT. They added some good freshmen, didn't lose any key players to graduation and had reasonable expectations of improving this season, but they haven't.

Perhaps it's because of multiple injuries once the season began. Reserve sophomore guard/forward Heather Corral hasn't played since December 15 after minor knee surgery. Reserve freshman forward/center Chantel Osahor missed 10 non-conference games with a shoulder injury and a stress fracture in her foot. Reserve redshirt freshman forward/center Katie Collier has played in all but two games but has been hampered by hamstring and neck injuries. Starter redshirt sophomore forward Talia Walton's playing time has been limited due to chronic knee pain.

In mid-January, head coach Mike Neighbors said, "We should be further ahead of where we are. But when you can’t practice, you can’t get better, and we haven’t been able to practice.”

Neighbors has addressed the problem by altering the practice schedule. Everyone who can play the weekend’s games practices on Wednesdays. The other days are for treatment, individual workouts and rest to compensate for the injuries.

With at most ten active players on the roster, the lead Dawgs are carrying a very heavy load. The starting four (not including Walton) each average about 35 minutes per game. Phrases like, "...but couldn't finish off xxx" appear in several of the reports of their lost games.

The starters for the Huskies are:

• #10, 5'9" freshman guard Kelsey Plum is the Huskies' freshman phenom. She's their top scorer with 19.8 points per game, which ranks fourth in the conference. She averages 2.48 3-pointers per game, which ranks third. She adds 4.3 rebounds and 2.6 assists (but more turnovers – 2.9). She has been named the Pac-12 Freshman of the Week four times.


• #32, 5'7" junior guard Jazmine Davis was the Huskies' freshman phenom two seasons ago, when she was named the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year. She's just a hair behind Kelsey in scoring with 19.4 points per game (ranks fifth) and 2.43 3-pointers per game (ranks fourth). She and Kelsey are the nation's second-highest scoring backcourt duo. Jazmine also adds 4.0 rebounds and 3.3 assists (but the most turnovers – 3.9).


• #3, 6'2" redshirt sophomore forward Talia Walton is a solid player on both offense and defense. She averages 10.6 points, 8.4 rebounds (ranks seventh in the conference) and 1.55 blocks (ranks third) per game.


• #23, 6'0" junior forward Aminah Williams is the best rebounder with 10.9 per game (ranks third in the conference). She adds 7.5 points and 1.6 steals per game.


• #1, 5'8" senior guard Mercedes Wetmore does a very good job of distributing and handling the ball. She dishes out 4.33 assists per game with an assist/turnover ratio of 2.28 — both rank third in the conference. She adds 6.4 points and 3.6 rebounds per game.

The Huskies' bench of at most five reserves has contributed about nine points and seven rebounds per game.

UW's win-loss record (12-9 overall, 5-5 conference) places them tied for sixth in the Pac-12, their RPI (95) places them tenth, and their strength of schedule rank (84) places them tenth.

Here are UW's statistics and roster.