The 2025 basketball season began with a familiar walk into Beasley Coliseum for senior guard Kyra Gardner, but this time, she wore a different team across her chest. Gardner, after three years at Washington State, was back in the arena she first stepped onto as a college player, but this time she was in black and gold.
Leading up to tip-off, Gardner had a lot of thoughts going through her mind.
“I knew about the game for a month or two … and I’ve had so many thoughts in my head, going through what [if] I had something to prove, and I couldn’t figure out what I had to prove,” Gardner said. “If I had to prove to myself, prove to the coaches at WSU, I couldn’t figure that out until right before it became game time. I knew I needed to do this for myself and for my team, because I don’t have anything to prove to them.”
As the game began, all the anxious thoughts she had disappeared, and her love for basketball took over.
“The last three years, it’s really amazing and fun and I appreciate everything they’ve done, but I just had to prove something to myself,” Gardner said. “That whole game was a really fun experience. I haven’t played like that in three years. To do it with the best people I could ever thank, it was amazing.”
Through four quarters, Vandal fans got to see why the coaching staff was so high on Gardner. The senior guard poured in 26 points, including six three-pointers, as she helped guide her team back from a double-digit deficit.
With under a minute to go, Gardner had the ball in her hands and she laced another three-pointer to tie the game at 85.
Thirty seconds later, with 4.7 seconds left in the game and the Vandals clinging to an 87-85 lead, the Cougars had a chance to tie or win the game with one more possession. Gardner, however, was determined to help her team get the win.
When it was thrown in, Gardner and the whole building knew where it was going. As WSU junior guard Eleonora Villa rose up to attempt the game-winning three-pointer, Gardner read the play, blocked the shot and as the buzzer sounded, she threw the ball to the other side of the court and celebrated the win with her new team.
“Hearing all the storylines, hearing that I was on the news and all these other things about that game, I just I was blown away, because I’ve never had that before in the last three years,” Gardner said. “So it was just a lot was going through my head when all this was happening.”
Gardner is a player who can affect a game in every way with her sharp shooting ability to hit from anywhere on the court, her wide range of passing and her defensive prowess. Where she makes the most difference is her defending. With her quick hands, long arms and the talent and willingness to guard everyone on the floor, she has proved to be an invaluable player for the Vandals.
Head coach Arthur Moreira has been impressed with what he has seen so far from Gardner in her Vandal career.
“Kyra is a very special player. She’s one of the few players in the conference that can impact the game in any area,” Moreira said. “Offense, defense, shooting, passing, attack, shot blocking, stealing. I don’t know if there are players in the conference that can impact in every single area like she does.”
So far in her 15 games in a Vandals uniform, Gardner is averaging 12.7 points and 7.2 rebounds per game and has five double-doubles and a triple-double already on the season.
Her triple-double effort came against Western Oregon, where she finished with 12 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists and led the Vandals to a 91-63 victory.
Before Gardner was lighting up the scoreboard at Beasley Coliseum or Idaho Central Credit Union Arena, she was growing up in Raymond, Washington, hoping for a chance to one day be a professional basketball player.
As the raindrops hit and everyone else went inside, Gardner and her sister were out there on the basketball courts playing, having fun and falling in love with basketball.
“I started playing because my mom was a coach, and she coached my sister, and when we were all younger, I ended up playing with my sister,” Gardner said. “I was always out in the rain and whatever on the hoops, and we’d always compete against each other, and that made me fall in love with basketball.”
From the first time she stepped on the courts at Raymond High School, she had the talent and desire to reach her dream. Gardner was an all-around athlete competing in three sports: basketball, volleyball and track and field.
On the basketball court, Gardner really shined. Throughout her four-year career with the Seagulls, she ended her career with a school record 1,906 points, 707 rebounds, a school record 584 steals and 323 assists.
After her senior season, where she averaged 27 points, 9.9 rebounds, seven steals and five assists per game, her impressive numbers led to her winning the Washington Gatorade Player of the Year for the 2021-2022 season.
“It feels really good when you win something and are honored by such a big thing,” Gardner said. “It wasn’t just me that helped me get that award. It was my coaches and my travel coaches. It was my parents, because they always pushed me to be the best person and player I can be.”
The next step in the process for Gardner was picking a college. For Gardner, it came down to the Battle of the Palouse between Idaho and Washington State. The Cougars were her first offer in her freshman year, and she in the end chose the Cougars to live out her dream.
“I chose WSU because I liked the area. It was a big place, but it reminds me of my small town. They were Pac-12 at the time, and I thought it’d be pretty cool. It’s always been a dream to play Pac-12 or even higher as a child. I learned a lot in the last three years I was there with them, and I was very appreciative of what they did for me.”
After three years in a Cougar uniform, Gardner thought it was time for a change. Her connection to associate head coach Drew Muscatell helped her process. He had known her since she was 14 years old recruiting her out of High School. When she entered the portal, she waited on a text from Muscatell that text came, and she didn’t hesitate.
“When I committed to WSU, the last things that were said to me is, if you ever leave, we’re here,” Gardner said. “I was like, you’re throwing your card on the table, waving the flag, seeing if they’ll pick you up.”
“I’ve loved everything about Idaho,” she said. “I love Arthur Moreira, the arena is amazing, my teammates, they’re fun to be around. It’s just fun with everybody. And you can pick on the coaches; they’ll pick on you. It’s like sibling type of things. We’re all family. So, it’s just fun. We go out and do things around Moscow and have fun together. It’s just really nice time being here. And I really love it here.”
Even with all her success, Moreira still sees areas for her to grow and become one of the best players in the Big Sky Conference.
“Kyra is only scratching the surface of what she can be,” Moreira said. “She didn’t have as much freedom, minute-wise, in the last three years in her college career. Even though she is a senior school-wise, I feel like she’s still like a sophomore basketball-wise. She keeps getting better every time we play.”
Every time Gardner comes onto the court at ICCU Arena, the crowd roaring, lights shining brightly on her No. 3 jersey, it paints a picture of what it took her to get to this moment.
From the girl from Raymond who played on the rainy courts dreaming of being a basketball player, hoping one day a kid from a small town could perform on the biggest stages.
Now, as she nears the end of her college career, that girl who stood out in the rain is looking up, ready for her final chapter and a potential rainfall of confetti when it’s all said and done.