COUGARS HOST ALASKA-ANCHORAGE IN SUNDAY EXHIBITION
Washington State women's basketball will take the floor for the first time in Beasley Coliseum Sunday, hosting the University of Alaska-Anchorage at 2 p.m.

UP NEXT
The Cougars open the season with a four-game homestand beginning Friday, Nov. 11 against Loyola Marymount at 7 p.m. and continues Sunday, Nov. 13 against Saint Mary's College at 1 p.m.

ABOUT ALASKA-ANCHORAGE
The University of Alaska-Anchorage is a member of the Division II Great Northwest Athletic Conference and is coming off a 38-3 season where they reached the Division II National Championship Game and lost a 78-73 decision to Lubbock Christian. The Seawolves return five letterwinners for last year's team including two starters led by forward Alysha Devine who averaged 8.6 ppg and 5.0 rpg. Head coach Ryan McCarthy is in his fifth season at UAA and owns a 103-24 record.

LAST SEASON
Washington State finished ninth in the Pac-12 Conference with a 5-13 record and a 14-16 overall record. The Cougars found early-season success, jumping out to a 5-0 start. Led by freshman phenom Borislava Hristova, WSU clinched the 2015 Bank of Hawaii Rainbow Wahine Classic title. In her ninth season at the helm of the women's program, June Daugherty led a youthful team to the Cougars' best start since 1989-90. WSU completed its nonconference season with a 9-2 record before entering the country's toughest RPI conference. Washington State swept Colorado and Arizona and picked up a Pac-12 win over No. 25 USC.

HRISTOVA AND HAILEY EARN ALL-PAC-12 HONORS
Freshman Borislava Hristova and sophomore Caila Hailey received All-Pac-12 honors. Hristova was selected to the All-Pac-12 Team by media members and was named to the Pac-12 All-Freshman Team. Sophomore Caila Hailey received an honorable mention to the Pac-12 All-Defensive Team.

FOUR COUGS EARN PAC-12 ALL-ACADEMIC AWARDS
Senior Mariah Cooks headlined a quartet of Cougar players that earned Pac-12 All-Academic honorable mention. Cooks earned the honor for the third-consecutive season, while sophomores Bianca Blanaru, Louise Brown, and Pinelopi Pavlopoulou garnered honorable mention in their first year of eligibility.

WSU SENIORS LEAVE THEIR MARK
WSU's four seniors, Dawnyelle Awa, Mariah Cooks, Taylor Edmondson, and Alexas Williamson, finished their careers having played a combined 8,047 minutes in Cougar uniform. The four seniors have their names sprinkled throughout the WSU record book with seven spots among the program's all-time top-10 lists. The senior class led WSU to back-to-back postseason berths for the first time in school history and the best conference finish since 1997-98.

BLOCK PARTY
The Cougars broke the WSU single-season record with 120 total blocks during the 2015-16 season. WSU averaged 4.0 blocks per game led by redshirt-freshman Nike McClure and true freshman Maria Kostourkova. The freshman duo headlined the Cougar frontline with 25 and 23 blocks, respectively, fourth- and fifth-most in WSU freshman history.

BORISLAVA 'BOBI BUCKETS' HRISTOVA
True freshman and Pac-12 All-Freshman Team honoree Borislava Hristova turned heads in her first season with the Cougars. The Varna, Bulgaria native led the team with 16.3 points per game, second-best in the conference by a freshman and sixth-best overall. The three-time Pac-12 Freshman of the Week selection set the WSU freshman scoring record with 490 total points. During her first season in Pullman, Hristova set the WSU freshman records in total points, field goals made (200), points per game (16.3), and free throw percentage (.881). She reached double-digit scoring figures 26 times this season and already holds the all-time record at WSU for best career free throw percentage at .881 (min. 50 made FTs). Nine times this season Hristova scored at least 20 points, breaking a freshman record that had stood for over 26 years.

TWO MINUTE DRILL
Thirteen times last season Washington State played a game that was within two possessions (six points) in the final two minutes. In six of those games the Cougars were leading, and in seven games they were trailing. WSU owns a 5-8 record in such games. The Cougars finished 4-2 when leading in the final 120 seconds and 1-6 when trailing down the stretch, having pulled off a last-second comeback at Arizona, Feb. 21. In addition, WSU was within two possessions of pulling off upsets of No. 16 Stanford and No. 9 Oregon State with less than four minutes remaining. The Cougars went 2-6 in games decided by five points or fewer.

COUGAR FRESHMEN CONTRIBUTE EARLY
Last season, Washington State welcomed one of its most talented recruiting classes in June Daugherty's tenure with the signing of its three 2015-16 freshmen. Borislava Hristova led the team with 16.3 points per game. The Varna, Bulgaria native dropped 30 points on San Jose State, becoming just the second freshman in WSU history to reach the 30-point plateau. Maria Kostourkova proved herself an inside threat, averaging 4.3 rebounds per game and 5.5 points per game. Kostourkova led the team with a career-high 17 points against Colorado, Jan. 4. Alexys Swedlund dropped four 3-pointers against California to aid the Cougars, finishing with a career-high 16 points, and finished the season averaging 4.7 points per game.

COUGARS' DEPTH SHINES
Nine Cougar players appeared in all 30 games during the season, and nine players averaged over 10 minutes per game. WSU's bench players outscored the opponent's bench 24 times this season and the Cougar reserves outscored opponent reserves by an average of 12.1 points per game.

DAUGHERTY REACHES 100 WSU WINS
Head coach June Daugherty earned her 100th-career win at Washington State with the Cougars' 74-66 victory at Colorado, Jan. 4. Daugherty has guided the WSU program to a 104-177 record over nine seasons in Pullman, becoming the third coach in Cougar history to reach 100 WSU wins. Sue Durant boasted a 134-99 record in nine seasons (1974-82) and Harold Rhodes guided the Cougars to 194 wins over 17 years at WSU (1983-99). Daugherty is no stranger to success, having reached 400-career wins last season, and currently owns a 417-391 record over her 27-year coaching career.

DAUGHERTY DOMINATES FOR DECADES
Head coach June Daugherty has proven to be successful across the Pac-12 Conference and beyond. When she earned her 100th win Jan. 4, she became the first coach in conference history to win 100+ games at multiple Pac-12 schools (Washington). Daugherty also became one of three active coaches at a Power-5 conference school to have guided three different Division-I programs to 100+ wins. Daugherty boasted a 191-139 record while at Washington and registered 122 wins in her time at Boise State.

THE "UNITED NATIONS OF BASKETBALL"
The 2015-16 Cougar basketball team was represented by student-athletes from seven different countries and five different states. Head coach June Daugherty regarded the team as the "United Nations of Basketball." The Cougars had five student-athletes from Europe compared to six for the rest of the Pac-12 Conference combined. Of the conference's six Australian student-athletes, two of them don WSU uniforms. The student-athletes on the WSU roster speak a combined 17 languages.

AWA PARTICIPATES IN WBCA PROGRAM
Senior guard Dawnyelle Awa was selected tin March to participate in the Women's Basketball Coaches Association's "So You Want To Be A Coach Program" program. The highly-competitive program is a collaborative effort between the WBCA and the NCAA to provide female student-athletes with an experience that becomes the foundation of a successful coaching career. The program assists female collegiate basketball players who are interested in pursuing a career in coaching women's basketball with professional development and career advancement through education, skills enhancement, networking, and exposure opportunities, while increasing awareness regarding the availability of talented female basketball players who want to coach.

RACKING UP THE AIRLINE MILES
Washington State did its fair share of traveling during the nonconference season. The Cougars traveled a total of 15,728 miles during the 9-2 nonconference season, averaging 1,430 miles per game. WSU traveled to Honolulu, Hawaii for the Bank of Hawaii Rainbow Wahine Classic, Nov. 20-22, flying 5,860 miles. After returning home for Thanksgiving and a single home game, the team turned around and began a nine-day trip to Oklahoma State, Boise State and San Diego, accruing 4,722 miles. WSU continued its travels with a trip to Moraga, Calif., to face Saint Mary's, adding an additional 1,758 miles. The Cougars closed the nonconference season accruing 3,308 miles with a trip to Lawrence, Kan., and a victory over the Jayhawks.

STARTING OFF STRONG
After beginning the season 5-0 for the first time since 1998, the Cougars recorded their first loss of the season at Oklahoma State. WSU responded with three-straight victories, improving to 8-1 for the first time since 1989-90, before falling at Saint Mary's, Dec. 12. The honor for the best start in school history goes to the Cougars' 1978-79 squad that started the season 10-0 before falling to Oregon.

DAUGHERTY INKS FOUR FOR 2016-17
Chanelle Molina, Cameron Fernandez, Katie Campbell, and Kayla Washington each signed last fall. Molina (Kailua Kona, Hawaii) is listed as a five-star recruit by ESPN.com, and is the third WSU recruit from Konawaena High School (Dawnyelle Awa and Lia Galdeira). Fernandez (Makawao, Hawaii) led Lahainaluna High School to a 20-2 last season and the state championship game, while averaging 17 points, six assists, four steals, and five rebounds per game. Campbell (Oxnard, Calif.) is a three-time captain at Oaks Christian High School, she is a 3-point threat for the Lions, and made 77 shots from beyond the arc during her junior season. Washington (San Bernardino, Calif.) is a four-year captain at Cajon High School, Washington has led the Cowgirls to three-straight Citrus Belt League Championships.

SIGNEES NOMINATED AS ALL-AMERICANS
Katie Campbell, Kayla Washington, and Chanelle Molina, incoming freshmen on the 2016-17 Washington State women's basketball team, were nominated as McDonald's All-Americans, the organization announced this month. The trio are a part of the Cougar class that is expected to be one of Coach Daugherty's most talented in her tenure at Washington State.