College hoops recap: Growth, setbacks and postseason streaks for Warriors, Cougs, Vandals in 2025 season

Apr. 3—For the bulk of Washington State coach Kamie Ethridge's tenure, it seemed as if the Cougar women's basketball program was immune from the sweeping tides of the transfer portal which had decimated the neighboring WSU men's basketball program year after year.

This year, the WSU women's team has lost more players (six) than the WSU men (four) as of Wednesday evening.

Eight miles east, the Idaho men and women will lose several key pieces to the portal and to graduation after treating Moscow to a quality of college basketball not seen in years.

South, in the L-C Valley, the Lewis-Clark State Warrior women and men maintained their standard of excellence, advancing to their respective conference finals and appearing in the NAIA Tournament.

Below is a summary of each local college basketball team's season and what may be in store next year.

Up-and-down year for WSU men

There is only one other coach who won more games in his first season on the Palouse than WSU coach David Riley did.

And those 26 wins carried Tony Bennett to the NCAA Tournament in 2006 after he took over the Cougar basketball program from his father Dick Bennett.

Riley took the reins of a program fresh off the NCAA Tournament that lost its entire starting lineup and all but two players, rebuilt the roster in a matter of months and still managed to win 19 games.

Naysayers will point to WSU's easier West Coast Conference schedule relative to the classic Pac-12 and inconsistent defense as detractors.

However, the Cougs (19-15) secured key wins over Bradley (Missouri Valley Tournament runner-up), Nevada and Boise State (Mountain West Tournament runner-up) to jump out to a 13-3 start before the injuries to key contributors Cedric Coward and Isaiah Watts stalled the Cougars' progress and led to WSU dropping 12 of its final 18 contests, including an 85-82 loss to Georgetown on Monday in the first round of the College Basketball Crown, a new college basketball postseason tournament.

After three years at the helm of Eastern Washington, Riley brought four players with him from Cheney to Pullman, including Coward, sophomore LeJuan Watts and senior posts Ethan Price and Dane Erikstrup. The former Eagles paired well with Washington transfer point guard Nate Calmese to form a lethal offense, but WSU struggled to grab enough rebounds and saw its defense suffer.

The Cougars were in the top 20 in the nation in field-goal percentage (ninth, 49.11%), assists per game (19th, 16.9) and inside-the-arc accuracy (seventh, 58.2%) but 234th in rebounds per game (34.2).

With three starters graduating and two more — Calmese and LeJuan Watts — in the transfer portal, Riley will once again have to replace the program's entire starting lineup from the year prior but figures to retain younger players such as Lapwai High School alum Kase Wynott.

Wallack cements her place in Wazzu women's record books

Four-year Coug Tara Wallack became the program's all-time leader in minutes played with 4,017. Wallack posted career-best numbers as the lone senior on the roster.

With just three upperclassmen and a diverse roster (13 players representing 10 different countries), the Cougars experienced some growing pains in Year 7 of the Ethridge era and in the first year without program legend Charlisse Leger-Walker.

The Cougars won 20 games for the third straight year, qualified for the postseason for the fifth straight year and produced multiple all-conference players in their first season in the WCC.

Wallack earned first-team All-WCC recognition and sophomore Eleonora Villa (13.6 points per game), and junior Astera Tuhina (36.4% from 3-point range) earned second-team honors.

The 21-14 Cougars lost five games to the top two teams in the WCC, Portland and Gonzaga, but beat the eventual WCC Tournament champion Oregon State twice.

WSU also played a difficult nonconference schedule with road trips to Stanford, Oregon and Iowa which led to losses.

Days removed from a third-round Women's Basketball Invitation Tournament loss to North Dakota State, Tuhina joined two freshmen — Dayana Mendes and Alice Dart — in the transfer portal. Six total Cougs, including in-state recruits Kyra Gardner, Jenna Villa and redshirt freshman Candace Kpetikou of Niamey, Niger, have entered the portal.

Idaho men win first Big Sky Conference game in eight years

With a distinct home-state advantage, the Vandals (14-19) descended into the Treasure Valley and won a Big Sky Conference Tournament game for the first time since 2017.

In his second year in Moscow, coach Alex Pribble's Vandals won 14 games — the most in a season since 2017-18 — and turned in some memorable moments to get there.

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Kolton Mitchell's buzzer-beating, half-court 3-pointer to beat Northern Colorado 77-76 on Jan. 23 in front of an elated Moscow crowd will be replayed on Vandal basketball hype videos for years.

Mitchell racked up 11.1 points per game and a team-leading 45 steals while Kristian Gonzalez led Idaho with 11.4 points per game this season.

Idaho has lost four players to the transfer portal, including 6-foot-7 sophomore forward Tyler Mrus and 6-9 senior forward Julius Mims.

Lapwai's Titus Yearout played 10.7 minutes per game but rattled off a career-high 14 points in the final three minutes of the Vandals' 76-69 loss to Portland State on Feb. 6 in Moscow.

Moreira remakes Idaho women's roster

In his first year at the helm of the Vandals, coach Arthur Moreira supervised a near-total overhaul of the UI women's hoops roster with just two players from the previous year remaining going into the season.

To replace the lost minutes, Moreira and his staff attracted a slew of older transfers, including Olivia Nelson, who led the team with 14.4 points per game.

Hope Hassmann of Tahoma High School in Maple Valley, Wash., transferred to Moscow from Cal-State Fullerton and poured in 14.4 points per game.

Jennnifer Aadland, a graduate transfer, paced Idaho (18-12) with 23 total blocks and shot 35.9% from deep.

The Vandals went 18-12 and 10-8 in the Big Sky. They won big games over Utah State and Montana but lost eight of their last 12 to sputter out in the second round of the Big Sky Tournament, losing 65-54 to Montana, a school Idaho had beaten twice in the regular season.

Idaho will lose the bulk of its starting lineup to graduation but seeks to return younger contributors such as Hassmann and Anja Bukvic.

Hamilton reaches new heights for LC State men

LC State senior Alton Hamilton was the lone player in the Cascade Conference to average a double-double with 17.3 points and 10.3 rebounds per game, earning the conference's Player of the Year Award a season after being crowned Freshman of the Year.

The Warriors were 24-8 in 2024-25, losing by two to then-No. 7 Montana Tech in November but beating No. 24 Oregon Tech 87-80 on Feb. 14.

Three of the Warriors' eight losses, including their Cascade Conference Final loss, came to the eventual national champion College of Idaho.

LC State got bounced from the NAIA Tournament in the first round, losing to Saint Francis (Ind.) 81-73 on March 14.

The Warriors relied on steady contributions from star post Hamilton, sophomore MaCarhy Morris (14.7 points per game) and former CCC Freshman of the Year John Lustig of Colfax (12.6 points per game).

Freshman Dylan Skaife of Spokane's Ferris High School began the year on the bench but earned a starting role by the end of the season. Skaife went off for 21 points in LC State's 98-78 CCC semifinal win over Multnomah on Feb. 28 in Lewiston.

LC State women send off all-time senior

Ellie Sander recorded her 1,000th and 500th career rebounds during her senior campaign as a standard bearer for success in LC State coach Caelyn Orlandi's second year at the helm.

The Warriors' top-three contributors each hailed from the Spokane area. Sander paced LC State with 13.6 points per game, junior Sitara Byrd sank 40.5% of her 3s and Darian Herring blocked 93 total shots.

Like the men, the Warrior women had the misfortune of sharing a conference with one of the best teams in the nation. Three of LC State's seven losses, including a CCC final loss, were to No. 2 Southern Oregon.

LC State turned in a 26-7 record, beating then-No. 9 Carroll College (Mont.) 73-44 on Nov. 15 and No. 22 Oregon Tech 73-54 on Feb. 14.

The Warriors advanced to Round 2 of the NAIA Tournament with a 75-59 win over Columbia College (Mo.) on March 14 and lost to No. 5 Briar Cliff (Iowa) 71-60 on March 15.

While the Warriors lose seniors Sander and Mataya Green, they seek to retain the bulk of their roster.

Taylor can be reached at 208-848-2268, staylor@lmtribune.com, or on X or Instagram @Sam_C_Taylor.