SEATTLE » In between exhibition games prior to the start of the 2012 season, Washington State women’s basketball coach June Daugherty made a bold statement to a gathered group of reporters.

"I kid you not, this freshman class is as any good as any in the country," she said.

A lot of that confidence came from a certain sparkplug from the Big Island who dominated the high school scene for much of her Konawaena career.

Two years since Lia Galdeira made her WSU debut, the 5-foot-11 guard has lived up to every bit of the hype the three-time state player of the year brought with her to Pullman, Wash.

She became the second-fastest Cougar to reach 1,000 career points on Thursday in a 107-100 victory over Oregon in the opening round of the Pac-12 tournament at KeyArena.

Her 31 points helped the Cougars set a tournament record for points in a single game to advance to the quarterfinals for the third straight year.

Galdeira was only getting started in Seattle, which hosted the conference tournament for a second consecutive year.

The recent first-team All-Pac-12 selection scored 17 of her game-high 28 points in the second half of a 91-83 upset win over California, which was the tourney’s No. 2 seed.

Galdeira was 13-for-16 from the free-throw line and added seven rebounds and three steals as the Cougars beat a ranked team for the fourth time this season.

Her tournament ended with a 16-point effort in a 70-60 loss to Oregon State on Saturday.

Galdeira left the game early after falling hard on her hand, but came back to add five rebounds and two steals in 26 minutes.

Despite only playing in three games, Galdeira set a Pac-12 tournament record with 75 points, breaking the previous mark of 71 in 2012 by Stanford’s Nnemkadi Ogwumike.

"She’s a talented kid," Daugherty said after the Cal win. "Lia does a lot of interesting things on the basketball court.

"There’s never a game or practice that something doesn’t happen where one of myself or assistant coaches or teammates is like, How did she do that? How did she split that trap or how did she get that rebound?’ She’s blessed with a lot of athleticism and she’s a fierce competitor."

Daugherty saw that competitive nature as soon as Galdeira returned to school after trying out for the USA Under-19 National team last summer.

Galdeira received one of the 34 invites, but didn’t survive the final cut.

"She came back to Pullman and she was way more focused on adding things to her game, getting in better shape, getting stronger, getting quicker," Daugherty said. "It’s pretty neat when you see a kid not get disheartened by that and turn it into a positive."

One look around the inside of KeyArena reveals absolutely no signs that the place once served as home to the NBA’s Seattle SuperSonics.

The closest thing to it is watching Galdeira speed up and down a basketball court, playing the game at a frantic pace that at times drives even her coach a little crazy.

There’s no hesitation when Galdeira puts up a shot and she does it from just about everywhere on the court.

She made first team all-conference, averaging 18.4 points, 4.8 rebounds, 2.5 steals and 2.1 assists per game.

She also attempted nearly 17 shots a game and was 32 percent (61-for-193) from 3-point range.

"I have a problem with not taking it to the hole and always pulling up for 3s," Galdeira said.

How does her coach feel about it?

"When they go in, great job," Daugherty said.