LAS VEGAS, Nev. - No. 12 seed Seattle University women’s basketball (5-24, 1-17 WCC) takes on No. 9 seed Washington State (7-24, 6-12 WCC) for the first contest of the 2026 Credit Union I WCC Championships at Orleans Arena on Thursday afternoon. Tipoff is slated for noon with action streamed on ESPN+.
Graduate Ella Brubaker leads the team into the tournament, collecting All-WCC honors earlier this week. Brubaker is one of two Redhawks scoring in double digits on the season, averaging a conference top-5 16.0 points per game. The University Place, Wash. guard is shooting 44.5 percent on the year, collecting 157 made field goals, including 39 made triples. She leads the nation’s eighth best free throw shooting team with an 83 percent clip from the stripe, knocking down a D-I season high 112 free throws in the regular season.
Brubaker posted 465 points over the season, the fourth most in the conference, while tallying new season highs in steals (46), rebounds (127), blocks (13) and assists (31).
In league play, Brubaker ranked seventh in field goals made, with 100 and third in the league in total points (299). Her 16.6 points per game in WCC games ranked fourth in the conference.
Redshirt senior Tamia Stricklin scores 10.2 points per game while pacing the team from three point land, shooting 36 percent from behind the arc. Stricklin led the Redhawks with a new collegiate season best 174 rebounds on the year, a mark that ranked eighth in the WCC. Her 6.2 rebounds per game was seventh in the league this season.
Freshman Jana Vesic orchestrates the offense, averaging 2.6 assists per game on the year. She averaged 8.2 points per game on the season across 29 games. She shot 40 percent from the field and handed out 74 assists. In league play, she scored 8.4 points per game.
Graduate Andjela Bigovic and junior Lucija Milkovic paced the team’s blocking effort, each recording 14 in the regular season. Brubaker finished behind with 13. Bigovic went for new career best eight makes on eight attempts from the free throw line against Washington State. She shoots 95.5 percent from the stripe on the year. Milkovic shoots 43.9 percent from the field this season to score 6.4 points per game in 16.4 minutes of action on average.
The Redhawks maintained their conference leading free throw percentage into the final weekend of regular season action. Their 79.5 percent shooting ranks eighth in the country this year. In league play, SU shot 83.3 percent from the line.
SU connected for 644 field goals over 29 games, including 161 triples, while bringing in 33.4 rebounds per contest. The Redhawks picked up 6.7 steals and tallied 2.8 blocks a game, ranking seventh in the conference in blocks.
Seattle U and Washington State meet for the third time this season and 15th time in program history. The Cougars collected both conference victories this season, moving to 5-0 in SU’s Division I era since the series restarted between the two programs in 2013. SU trails the all-time series 2-13.
The Redhawks drew the same side of the bracket as the tournament’s number one seed LMU. Should the Redhawks advance, they move on to face Pacific in the second round on March 6. Portland, Oregon State and LMU round out SU’s side of the bracket while the remaining six, including No. 2 seed Gonzaga, complete the bracket. A champion will be crowned on March 10.
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