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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

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WSU pounds cold Sac State


COUGARS

The Sacramento State Hornets didn't prove to be much of a test for Washington State on Tuesday night. But there were a few interesting aspects of the 84-36 Cougar win that we didn't get into our game story, so read on.
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• We cover the most salient points from the game, which lost any kind of suspense in the first few minutes, in our game story, but, as Paul Harvey used to say, here's the rest of the story. ... The Hornets' shooting was horrendous early – they missed their first 12 shots, missed their first 10 3-point attempts, shot 31.9 percent from the floor and 6.7 percent – 1 for 15 – from beyond the arc. ... Bone said one of the goals was to take care of the little stuff, the fundamental elements of the game that have a tendency to slip when the competition isn't overwhelming, so any defensive lapse resulted in a seat on the bench. That's part of the reason why Ben Loewen, the Mead High graduate who also played at Whitworth, came into the game so early. But it was his play that earned him the 14 minutes he appeared. ... Another walk-on, freshman Will DiIorio, was used for a few minutes in Fresno when Klay Thompson got into foul trouble, and he was used for another 13 minutes again Tuesday. "He's pretty good," Bone said. "He was offered a Division I scholarship but decided to walk on here. He stepped in the other night at Fresno and gave us a few good minutes there. He's got a good body, nice basketball instincts, he knows how to play and he can do some things. He needs to make his free throws, that was ridiculous." The last part was a joke, though 3 for 6 from the line didn't have Bone laughing too hard. ... Brock Motum also had a career-high 11 points, hitting all five of his shots. He's now shooting 84.6 percent from the floor (22 of 26) this season. ... Marcus Capers had a decent stat line: 9 points, 6 rebounds, a game-high 6 assists, 1 turnover, block and steal. He also did a great job on Sacramento State's leading scorer, 6-foot-1 point guard Sultan Toles-Bey, who came in averaging 14.8 points per game. Toles-Bey didn't score until the 8:51 mark of the second half, though he did finish with eight points. That came on 4-of-11 shooting, including 0-5 from beyond the arc. He also had four of the Hornets' 22 turnovers. ... As for Kansas State, it's obvious the WSU players have their memories from last year's defeat to power them through practice the rest of this week. We'll have more on that as we get closer to the game. ...

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• That's it for now. We'll be back in the morning with our usual post. Until then ...



Vince Grippi
Vince Grippi is a freelance local sports blogger for spokesman.com. He also contributes to the SportsLink Blog.

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