Women’s basketball: Gonzaga, Washington State coaches look forward to more meetings during brief conference rivalry

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Jan. 14—To hear the coaches talk about it, the Gonzaga and Washington State women’s basketball teams have a rivalry and they’ve been in the same conference just a few weeks.

Throw out the combined 33 turnovers from Saturday when Gonzaga topped the Cougars 69-61 at Beasley Coliseum and it was a hard-fought, entertaining game.

Like a rivalry game.

Gonzaga coach Lisa Fortier sees a team finally tapping into its potential. WSU coach Kamie Ethridge would like to see a team that’s less up and down, the product of a young team.

Count both as fans of a burgeoning rivalry separated by 75 miles.

“You know I have a ton of respect for Kamie. I would call her a coaching friend,” Fortier said. “It feels different to play them once a year. We’ll play them now and for the foreseeable future (two to three times a year) — maybe until the two of us retire. I think it’s fun for the players.”

“I respect their program so much and how they play and how they compete — just their tradition of winning,” Ethridge said. “It’s so good to play teams that are so rich in that kind of tradition because they never fold, they have so much resiliency.”

The West Coast Conference series should become more than a territorial battle. It may decide conference championships.

Since 2007, when Gonzaga captured its first WCC tournament title, the Zags have won 10 and finished runner-up five times. That’s most of any team.

BYU, long gone to the Big 12, won three titles and was second four times. Portland, which has won two straight, has three banners in that span.

WSU and Oregon State, affiliate members for two years, will be part of a revamped Pac-12 Conference with Gonzaga beginning in 2026-27. Those three teams should establish some healthy rivalries.

Gonzaga and WSU meet again Feb. 8 in Spokane. The Zags had one week to prepare for the Cougars last week while WSU had to make a quick trip to Saint Mary’s on Thursday.

The week of the rematch, WSU will have a week to prepare while Gonzaga plays the Thursday before the…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/womens-basketball-gonzaga-washington-state-030200003.html

Author : The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash.

Publish date : 2025-01-15 03:02:00

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