FORT WORTH, Texas — Vanderbilt forward Sacha Washington cried when she found out that her teammate and best friend, Iyana Moore, was transferring for the 2025-26 women’s college basketball season.
Moore’s destination: Notre Dame.
The duo who roomed together in 2021 and have been best friends since will share the court for the last time in their college careers in Friday’s Sweet 16 matchup between Notre Dame and Vanderbilt.
Washington, a native of Lawrenceville, Georgia, and Moore, a native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, arrived at Vanderbilt with a lot of unknowns. The coaching staff who recruited them was no longer there, and the pair were expected to help create a new identity for the team.
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“We had some rough couple of years there where we leaned on them a lot,” Vanderbilt head coach Shea Ralph said. “They had to grow up really quickly.”
Washington and Moore grew in separable during their four years. They played every game together, save for the season they each sat out due to injury and health issues. (Moore missed 2022-23 with a torn ACL; Washington missed 2024-25 due to a blood clot.) They played played games together — including NBA2K every night — watched their favorites shows together.
“Being there for four years, you build a bond that’s like no other,” said Moore, who is averaging 12.2 points this season for the sixth-seeded Fighting Irish.
After Moore left Nashville for South Bend, she missed not seeing her best friend every day.
“She’s one of the goofiest, silliest people I’ve ever met in my life,” Moore said.
Of course Washington supported Moore’s decision, but she was still devastated.
“I cried when I found out she was leaving,” said Washington, who is averaging 10.4 points and 7.8 rebounds per game for Vanderbilt. “It was definitely really sad for me.”
Yes, they still talk every night and play NBA 2K together. No, they haven’t talked about facing each other in March Madness.
“You kind of want to keep the emotion to the side,” Moore said.
We can expect, however, a lot of talking on the court.
“Probably a lot of trash talk, a lot of fun and games,” Washington said. “It’s all love at the end of the day, but, yeah, definitely a lot of trash talking.”
Popi Márquez is a student in the University of Georgia’s Carmical Sports Media Institute.
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