As the final buzzer sounded in the Pac-12 Women’s Basketball championship final, it was fitting that the ball happened to be in the hands of Charlisse Leger-Walker. Almost like it was scripted by destiny. UCLA’s last desperate field goal attempt had thumped off the backboard and simply landed in the lap of CLW, who in turn hurled it into the air as the game ended and her Washington State Cougars were confirmed as conference champions for the first time in the school’s history.

It was fitting because throughout the game, throughout the whole tournament, the whole season in fact, the last three seasons, Leger-Walker has consistently led the Cougars to unprecedented achievements. By winning this trophy, they’ve booked a ticket to the NCAA National Tournament for the third season in a row having only ever made it that far once prior to CLW’s arrival on the scene. They’re now ranked top-25 in the country for the first time ever. Leger-Walker herself has been scooping up awards left, right, and centre whilst breaking school records in the process.

These are not normal areas. But then of course they aren’t because Charlisse is not a normal basketballer. We’re used to a certain type of Aotearoa export in this sport, the Steven Adams/Mika Vukona type who isn’t the most skilled dude out there but does so many little things so well and always plays with the right attitude, impacting their team by making everyone better around them. CLW can do that stuff too, no doubt. But the difference here, even compared to the idealised pinnacle version of that archetype that is Steven Adams, is that Leger-Walker doesn’t facilitate for stars... she is the star.

CLW was the best player on the court in that Pac-12 championship game. So often it was her three-point shooting that seemed to keep her team in touch. Five makes from seven attempts in a final is simply outstanding. When the game was in the balance late on, she served up a couple of huge buckets getting to the rim (and turning one of those into a three-point play). When she was pressed and double-teamed late on she was immune to the traps. She did miss a free throw near the end, a strange rarity, but having top scored in the game with 23 points she then made sure to help close this thing out at the defensive end with some locked-on guarding against the drive and a couple of absolutely clutch rebounds. Enormous contributions in every aspect - including her leadership both on the court and in the huddle. A big game player doing big game things.

Which ain’t to say that she didn’t have help. That’s a strong team that WSU have assembled. Centre Bella Murekatete scored 21 points in the final. Guard Astera Tuhina had six assists. They got tidy contributions across the board from a mostly international roster (CLW is from New Zealand, Murekatete from Rwanda, Tuhina from Kosovo – to go with a couple Canadians and Australians). Their coach Kamie Ethridge has done fantastic things with this programme. You don’t win conference titles by accident. As CLW said herself amidst the confetti and the cheers: “this team is legit”.

And their best player is from the Waikato.

Leger-Walker scored 23 points with 7 rebounds and 3 assists in the final. She shot 7/11 from the field (5/7 3PT & 4/5 FT). Much of that mahi came in the decisive moments of the game and all of it helped cap off a brilliant tournament week, both from a team and an individual perspective. WSU lifted the trophy as the seventh seeded team in attendance – the lowest seeded team to ever make the championship final let alone to win the damn thing. And just look at these numbers from Charlisse...

• vs California: 39 MIN | 23 PTS (8/15 FG, 1/4 3PT, 6/8 FT) | 6 REB | 2 AST

• vs Utah: 39 MIN | 15 PTS (5/14 FG, 4/7 3PT, 1/2 FT) | 3 REB | 5 AST

• vs Colorado: 32 MIN | 15 PTS (6/17 FG, 1/4 3PT, 2/2 FT) | 3 REB | 2 AST

• vs UCLA: 37 MIN | 23 PTS (7/11 FG, 5/7 3PT, 4/5 FT) | 7 REB | 3 AST

She did save her best for the final... but as you can see the impact was immaculate throughout the entire week. Colorado were the 3-seed and the Cougs beat them by 12 points in the semi. Utah were the 2-seed (and at the time were ranked third in the entire country) and they’d already popped them 66-58 in the quarters in a thriller. WSU had seemed to have that one in the bag leading by 11 points with 3:40 remaining but the offence went dry and Utah closed it all the way back up to within three points. At which point Leger-Walker served up a bit of this to clinch the dub...

Incredibly, the 76 combined points she scored in the tournament is a new record. Never been matched before by any player at any Pac-12 school... largely because the top seeded teams get a bye through the first round so Washington State were busier than most with their four games. Yet another slice of evidence for how unlikely this title was – and how utterly influential Charlisse Leger-Walker was within that run.

Hence, as the final ended and the Cougars burst into celebration, there was never any doubt whatsoever that this was coming...

Player of the Tournament: Charlisse Leger-Walker.

Chuck that onto a long list of personal accolades that CLW has been scooping up since day one. They don’t make mantelpieces or trophy cabinets big enough for what she’s lugging around. Keep in mind that she plays in what’s been the arguably toughest conference in the country during the time that she’s been there. Stanford and Arizona met in the 2021 NCAA tourney final while there are currently six Pac-12 teams ranked in the AP’s top 25... including WSU at 22. Nothing comes easy in the Pac-12.

Also know that CLW recently made it three years out of three with an All-Conference selection (the second player in WSU history to achieve that treble). She was Freshman Player of the Year for the Pac-12 in her first season – winning seven separate Freshman of the Week titles (the only two players to have done that prior are Kristine Anigwe (8) and Kelsey Plum (7) and both went on to be top-10 WNBA draft selections). Better chuck in some Academic Honour Rolls too for good measure.

WSU had never won more than 21 games in a season before but they matched that tally and then surpassed it during the Pac-12 tournament. Heading into March Madness – where they’ll be seeking to win Washington State’s first ever National Tournament game – the Cougs are a tidy 23-10 for the season, a record that’s even better than it appears because they lost all four games while Leger-Walker was back in New Zealand for a family bereavement (her grandmother – condolences to the whanau).

Charlisse began this season shooting the lights out from deep. Through her first 11 games she was sinking those jerries at an astonishing 45% (36/80), having been a 32.8% & 27.2% three-point shooter in her first two campaigns. Naturally that levelled out over the course of the season but she still ended up at 35.6% which is a career-high and also the 16th best mark in the Pac-12. And of course when it mattered most she was unstoppable from deep in that final.

With 18.1 points per game, CLW was third in the conference. She was also 16th in rebounds (5.72/game), sixth in free throw percentage (83.3%), and second in assists (4.2/game). Oh and second in steals too (3.21.game). As well as first in minutes played (37.05/game).

She scored a career-best 35 points in the second game of the season against San Francisco and then topped that a few weeks later with 40 points at Washington Uni – the second highest scoring individual performance in the Pac-12 in 2022-23 and only the second Cougars player every to reach the 40-mark in the NCAA era (she was one point shy of tying both those records). This is one player doing all of this... and doing it for a university that’s not usually anywhere close to the big prestigious schools.

Again: WSU has never even won a National Tournament game and CLW’s doing numbers on par with players whose schools are turning up expecting to win the whole thing. This was the Cougars’ first ever conference championship and they won it as massive underdogs. They’re not in the running for the top American recruits. There’s a reason the bulk of their team are internationals.

As such Leger-Walker doesn’t tend to get anything other than an honourable mention whenever the likes of ESPN serve up their top player lists. Those jokers aren’t paying that much attention to a seventh-seeded Pac-12 team. However, for the first time in her career, Leger-Walker did make the cut for the Naismith Trophy Midseason Watch List this year – aka the top 30 players in the country. She’s also been included on the R.Wooden award longlist of 50 players for the second season in a row (though didn’t make the cut when that was trimmed to the top 15 players last week). Meanwhile she’s also featured in the top-10 for the Ann Meyers Drysdale Awards for the top shooting guard in Women’s Division 1 college basketball, although again missed out when that was trimmed to the top-5 finalists.

You can absolutely guarantee that she’ll be sliding up those lists and deeper into those awards contentions next season after what just happened at the Pac-12 tourney. Especially if she can chase that with a March Madness run. Playing for a mid-conference team might get your name out there but winning a conference title and player of the tournament along with it is going to really get folks paying attention. That’s legacy material. And you surely don’t even need to be told that we have never seen anything like this from a kiwi basketballer in college before.

Tell ya who has definitely been taking notice though? Shania Twain...

That’s because the Cougs have adopted Twain’s 1997 pop-country banger Man! I Feel Like A Woman! as a theme song during their Pac-12 tourney run. A song that was released before any of the players were even born, shout out to the timelessness of music.

Charlisse Leger-Walker made her international debut for the Tall Ferns 16 years of age and has absolutely bossed it for the various age grade teams too. She’s from an iconic kiwi basketballing family and has been an Aotearoa sporting prodigy since probably before she started high school. She was special from the start so if anyone was gonna translate that onto the American scene it was her but that doesn’t make it any less astonishing.

And it’s going to lead her to the WNBA. Players who’ve done comparable things have all ended up there, nothing is going to be any different in this case... apart from the fact that she’ll be only the second New Zealander in history to grace that highest level, following in the shoes of Megan Compain way back in 1997. But before that there’s another National Tournament burst on the horizon and (at least) her senior year at WSU to come. A senior year in which they’re all gonna know her name.

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