Villa has 15 points to lead balanced No. 23 Washington State women past UMass 90-48 in Cancun

Nov 24, 2023, 01:03 pm

CANCUN, Mexico -- — Eleonora Villa led a balanced attack with 15 points and No. 23 Washington State rolled to a 90-48 win over Massachusetts on Friday in the Cancun Challenge.

The Cougars (7-0) shot 54% (35 of 65), outrebounded UMass, which shot 33%, 42-28 and had 27 assists on 35 baskets.

Bella Murekatete scored 13 points for WSU. Alex Covill added 12 points and Charlisse Leger-Walker and Beyonce Bea both had 11. Another Cougar had nine points and two had eight. Astera Tuhina, who did not score, had a career-high 10 assists and Leger-Walker, who had her first triple-double in a win over Maryland a day earlier, had nine rebounds.

The 10 WSU players played between 16 and 24 minutes.

Stefanie Kulesza had 20 points and 11 rebounds for UMass (1-6).

Murekatete had seven points as Washington State reeled off 18 straight points in the first quarter, hitting 7 of 8 shots while UMass missed six shots and had three turnovers. It was 24-11 after one quarter and 48-24 at the half.

The Cougars cooled off in the third quarter, making 5 of 14 shots, but held UMass to 3 of 15 and pushed the lead to 62-30. WSU heated up again in the final quarter and pulled away.

The Cougars wrap up the round robin tournament against Green Bay on Saturday.

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