Tale of the tape: WSU 62, Saint Martin’s 50
COUGARS
FROM PULLMAN -- We'll keep this brief since it's late and it was, after all, an exhibition game. But we have our usual tale of the tape from tonight's 62-50 win by WSU over Saint Martin's. Read on.
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PLAYER OF THE GAME -- Brock Motum didn't get as many touches in the first half as Ken Bone wanted, but his teammates did a better job getting the ball to him in the second half. Motum finished with 21 points -- scoring 15 after halftime -- and was a big reason why the Cougars were able to pull away down the stretch. That's how it's going to have to be this season.
PLAY OF THE GAME -- There really wasn't one, but Mike Ladd had a pretty impressive put-back dunk with about three minutes left that drew some cheers from the crowd of 1,683.
STAT OF THE GAME -- Saint Martin's won the rebounding battle, 30-28. WSU knew that would be an area of concern, but that fact that it got outrebounded in an exhibition game against a Division-2 team is a little concerning. Royce Woolridge immediately identified rebounding as an area the Cougars need to improve upon when asked after the game. He's right. Though it is encouraging that D.J. Shelton was WSU's leading rebounder with nine (seven in the first half).
QUOTABLE -- "Some of our guys needed to be reminded at halftime who our best scorer was and that guy should get more touches. And when we got the ball to him a little bit more he was more productive." -- WSU coach Ken Bone
UP NEXT -- Saturday against Eastern Washington at 4:30 p.m.
Christian Caple can be reached at christianc@spokesman.com. Twitter: @ChristianCaple