Just 10 days ago, the Washington State men’s team had hopes of claiming a top four seed in the WCC if they could just get past Loyola Marymount and Pepperdine on the road. Sweeping both and getting just a little bit of help would have put them right into the quarterfinals. Meanwhile, the women’s team, already locked into playing in the first round, was just looking to end the regular season on a high note and build some momentum for the conference tournament.
On Saturday, the women’s team will prepare
to play the Portland Pilots in the third round after defeating Seattle on Thursday, 80-58, and Pacific on Friday, 82-76. On the other side, the men’s team suffered a likely season-ending loss to Portland on Friday night, 74-68.
The odds that the women’s team would be playing longer than the men’s team just 10 days ago were incredibly long. After all, the men had a legitimate chance of having a full three-round advantage. However, the difference in resiliency and leadership may be the reason one will continue their season on Saturday and the other fell victim to their season-long kryptonite.
Now the results on Friday aren’t completely shocking. The women’s game vs. Pacific was a toss-up. But WSU dominated the early stages of that game. They used runs of 9-0 and 8-0 in the first quarter to build an early 11-point lead. They continued to snowball that momentum into a solid second quarter and held a 19-point halftime lead. Veteran Ele Villa recorded 16 points in the game’s first 20 minutes with a pair of treys. Pacific could only sink 25% of their first-half shots and missed all 11 of their three-pointers.
WSU got up 23 to open the second half before the Tigers began to show some resistance. The Tigers chipped into the large deficit mostly at the free throw line, where they made 11 of 12 shots from the charity stripe in just the third quarter. The Tigers would get as close as five in the fourth quarter, but the Cougars stayed composed and knocked down their free throws in the final minute to keep the Tigers at an arm’s length. Villa ended up with a game-high 22 points, while Keandra Koorits tacked on an additional 15 off the bench.
A couple hours later, the men’s team tipped off on the same floor and played the same game they’ve been playing all season. One very competitive half and one not-so-good half. The first half was their competitive half. The Pilots and Cougars traded blows early on, with the Pilots gaining an early edge, leading by as many as seven. The Cougars quickly responded with a 7-0 run, started by an Ace Glass trey, to tie the game up at 12. Neither team would let the other build a huge lead, but it was WSU who came out on top in the game’s first 20 minutes, taking a narrow 29-25 lead into the break.
Then came the other half. The Pilots opened up with a 10-4 run in the first five minutes of the second half to flip the lead. Simon Hildebrandt got the lead right back with a three-pointer, but the Pilots countered with a 7-0 run to take a six-point lead. A lead that they would hold for the remainder of the game. While the Cougars were able to keep things close for the middle parts of the half, the Pilots eventually started to open things up, ballooning the lead out to 11 with 1:28 to play. The Cougars’ desperation threes were falling to keep them in the game till the end, but ultimately they just couldn’t keep pace. While they didn’t struggle with the turnover bug that usually is their Achilles heel, they fell victim to their true kryptonite of the 2025-26 season. Playing outside of the walls of Beasley Coliseum.
According to Barttorvik’s metrics, WSU played like the 93rd best team in the country when at home. Outside of Beasley Coliseum, in away or neutral site games, they were the 173rd best team. The 2025-26 Washington State Cougars finished with just two road wins against Division 1 opponents. One was a neutral-site game in Spokane against Eastern Washington, which you could argue was more like a semi-home game. The other was against these very Portland Pilots in Portland to open WCC play back in December.
Overall in their two seasons spent in the WCC, the Washington State men’s team finishes with an overall record of 31-25 and a record of 16-23 against WCC foes.
The women’s team will look to make their run truly a Cinderella run against the 5-seed Portland Pilots at noon on Saturday.
