Feb. 1—It was the biggest regular-season victory in program history but the Washington State women’s basketball team couldn’t celebrate it without a heavy heart.
While leading No. 2 UCLA by double digits in the third quarter, WSU star guard Charlisse Leger-Walker planted hard on a breakaway and crumpled to the court.
WSU coach Kamie Ethridge immediately knew it wasn’t a good sign for one of the toughest players she’s ever coached.
The Cougars went on to defeat the second-ranked Bruins 85-82 on Sunday in Los Angeles without their leader — the highest-ranked victory in program history — but an MRI confirmed Leger-Walker tore her ACL and will miss the remainder of the season, the team confirmed Wednesday.
“I told people it was the saddest happy day of our life in that win over UCLA,” Ethridge said.
Even more heartbreaking is that Leger-Walker was supposed to travel back to her native New Zealand this weekend to help her home country qualify for this year’s Summer Olympics in Paris.
Now, her Olympic dreams will have to wait at least four more years.
“There are so few college players on Olympic teams and she had the chance to do that for New Zealand and was going to be counted on to be one of their key players,” Etheridge said. “That is devastating on the human level and to the person that you know and believe in.”
A 5-foot-10 senior guard, Leger-Walker led the Cougars in scoring each of the last three seasons, all of which ended in trips to the NCAA tournament.
Last year, she was the Pac-12 tournament MVP after leading the seventh-seeded Cougs to their first conference tournament championship in any women’s sport as the lowest seed to ever win the Pac-12 tourney.
This season, Leger-Walker moved up to third on the all-time scoring list at WSU with 1,743 career points, ranks second all-time at WSU in made 3s (199), third in career minutes played (3,794), fourth in career scoring average (16.6), fourth in field goals made (607), fourth in assists (389), fifth in made free throws (330) and ninth in career starts (105).
She was averaging 13.2 points, 6.5 rebounds and 5.1 assists per game on the season.
But more importantly, Leger-Walker was a steady leader for a team that hadn’t previously seen much success.
Before Leger-Walker and Ethridge arrived at WSU, the team had been to one NCAA tournament in its entire history.
A trip this season would be its fourth straight to the Big Dance.
Leger-Walker could potentially return for a fifth season next year, but she had planned on this being her last run with the Cougs. Now, she’ll have to decide what’s best for her future: playing professional basketball or returning to Pullman.
As for the rest of the players, their goals are still in front of them.
WSU is 15-6 overall, 4-4 in Pac-12 play and still has a realistic shot at getting back to March Madness. Its victory over the Bruins also shows defending its conference title is not out of the question either.
Ethridge said it will take a team effort to replace Leger-Walker, but she has a ton of belief in her players.
More pressure now will reside on the shoulders of senior forward Bella Murekatete, whose 13.7 points and 7.7 rebounds per game are tops on the team.
Reserve players like Jenna Villa (7.7 ppg) and Alex Covill (3.3) will also see an uptick in minutes.
WSU returns to the court to face Colorado at 7 p.m. Friday at Beasley Coliseum in Pullman to start a four-game home stretch.
“We have to move on and we have to understand we can’t replace Charlisse, the kind of player she was, but everyone is going to have to do a little bit more,” Ethridge said. “There’s going to be a few more shots out there for some people, more opportunities for some people. I think we can play bigger than we have played and I think there is going to be opportunities for everyone on our team.”
Wiebe may be contacted at (208) 848-2260, swiebe@lmtribune.com or on Twitter @StephanSports.
