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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

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WSU gets past Western Oregon, 66-42

COUGARS

Western Oregon ran its offense with precision, caused trouble for Washington State on the other end by trapping out of its matchup zone and gave the Cougars all they wanted. For 20 minutes. The second half? It was 38-17 WSU. Read on.

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• Ken Bone got it exactly right in the postgame. "They just ran out of gas," Bone said of the Wolves, who played in the Bay Area yesterday afternoon, flew into Pullman about noon Sunday and gave WSU trouble for 20 minutes. But after halftime the Cougars size – in the end Brock Motum, Charlie Enquist, D.J. Shelton and Abe Lodwick were 8 for 12 combined from the field while Marcus Capers, who hangs around the rim a lot on offense, was 4 for 4 – caused Western Oregon trouble on both ends of the court. The offense is easy to see as WSU attacked the short corner or reversed the ball through the step-out high post and dumped it inside, much better. And a big reason the Wolves shot just 17.4 percent in the second half was every shot was contested and always by a taller, longer player. Inside, where they were 3 of 16, and beyond the arc, where they hit just 1 of 7. WSU played harder and got into shooters better. ... Some things I didn't get to in my game story included Charlie Enquist receiving a flagrant foul for an elbow that caught James Gehring in the mouth; Faisal Aden (23), Mike Ladd (15) and Abe Lodwick (14) combining for 52 minutes in their returns from injury; Aden taking the most shots (8) among the 10 Cougars who had attempts; and Kris White coming off the Wolves bench to lead everyone in scoring with 13 points. ... Here are the postgame interviews, courtesy of Washington State and the highlights.

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• Interviews, first with Bone and then with the players ...

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• Highlights ...

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• That's all we have from tonight. As a side note, this was my final game in Beasley after five years of covering the Cougars. Thought back today at Kyle Weaver, Robbie Cowgill, Klay Thompson, Aron Baynes, Tony Bennett and many, many more folks who made the some 100 games and more than double that many practices I've covered and watched in this building memorable. Pretty cool. Until later ...



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

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