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Gonzaga Women's Basketball

Gonzaga, Washington State women will face off twice in beefed-up WCC regular season

Gonzaga and Washington State will face each other twice during the regular season in West Coast Conference basketball games. (Geoff Crimmins/The Spokesman-Review)
By Greg Lee gregl@spokesman.com(509) 844-8168
Gonzaga and Washington State will face each other twice during the regular season in West Coast Conference basketball games. (Geoff Crimmins/The Spokesman-Review)

The West Coast Conference released its 2024-25 women’s basketball schedule Tuesday featuring 20 games over an 11-week span.

With Washington State and Oregon State joining the WCC, conference play goes from 16 to 20 games, with each of the 11 teams playing each other twice.

WCC play concludes March 1, a week shy of three months.

Gonzaga, the defending WCC champs who went 16-0 in conference play, tips off WCC play Dec. 19 with a two-game road trip to San Francisco and San Diego. GU’s home opener is Dec. 28 against Oregon State.

The Zags face Washington State for the first time Jan. 11 in Pullman. The return game at McCarthey Athletic Center is Feb. 8.

GU will carry three significant winning streaks into the season. The Zags, who have captured 18 of the past 20 WCC regular-season titles, have won 36 straight at home, dating to Feb. 5, 2022. They have won 22 consecutive conference games, and they have won 14 straight WCC games at home.

The Zags finished with a program-best record of 32-4 last year, advancing to the NCAA Sweet 16.

Gonzaga must replace four graduate starters. The Zags return WCC Player of the Year standout Yvonne Ejim.

WSU (21-15) overcame the loss of senior standout Charlisse Leger-Walker to advance to the inaugural Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament semifinals, where the Cougars’ season ended in an 81-58 setback to Illinois.

Leger-Walker could have returned to WSU for another season but elected to enter the transfer portal, landing at UCLA.

WSU returns seven players, including three starters.

OSU (27-8) advanced to the NCAA Elite Eight, where it lost to eventual national champ South Carolina 70-58.

But the Beavers will be a shell of the team a year ago, with seven players transferring out.

The WCC Tournament will be at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas on March 6-11.

The Gonzaga and WSU nonconference schedules have yet to be released. Those schedules, along with times and television information, will be released at later dates.