Cougars Crush Eastern; Praise Rebuilding Eagles

This wasn’t quite how Steve Aggers envisioned his debut when he signed on as Eastern Washington’s men’s basketball coach last May.

Sure, he knew it wouldn’t be pretty, opening on the road against a veteran Washington State team that is picked to challenge for this year’s Pacific-10 Conference title. Deep down, he probably even knew it wouldn’t be close.

But there is no way the former Pepperdine and Kansas State assistant could have foreseen opening without his two best players.

Yet there he was, late Sunday afternoon at Friel Court, marching into his first regular-season battle without suspended starters D’mitri Rideout and Melvin Lewis.

And the result was predictable - a 90-58 WSU massacre that was witnessed, quite mercifully, by fewer than 3,000 fans.

The Cougars, despite having only eight scholarship players available because of injuries and illness, managed to wear down an even thinner Eastern team late in the first half and then blew the Eagles out in the final 20 minutes.

Isaac Fontaine scored a game-high 24 points as one of five WSU players in double figures and the Cougars (2-0) showed they can be patient, unselfish and productive against a zone defense.

“We’re in a transitional phase in our program,” explained Aggers, who faces a major rebuilding job as John Wade’s successor. “And so early in the season like this, nobody likes to play a Pac-10 favorite on their opening game out of the gate.

“We played an outstanding basketball team tonight on their home court. I feel it was a great learning experience for us.”

Still, it was hard to get much of read on how far apart the two teams are because of the absences of Rideout, the team captain, and Lewis.

Rideout, according to Aggers, was suspended for a violation of team rules. Lewis, a 6-foot-8, 295-pound senior forward, is still on suspension pending a university and NCAA investigation into the validity of credits he received from a correspondence course he took while he was still in junior college.

Aggers refused to discuss the details of Rideout’s suspension, but said he expects the 6-5 guard to be reinstated for Tuesday’s 7:05 p.m. home-opener against Washington at Reese Court.

WSU coach Kevin Eastman said not having Rideout and Lewis on the floor “put a damper on the game,” explaining that he sensed a letdown among his own players when he informed them of the suspensions.

That might have been part of the reason behind WSU’s slow start. But if it was, the Cougars certainly got over their disappointment late in the first half when they picked apart Eastern’s 2-3 zone and went on a 10-4 run that produced their 40-28 halftime lead.

Eastman said he was happy with the way his team performed, especially in the second half. But he seemed even more impressed with the effort Aggers got from his Eagles.

“There’s no question we saw a different (Eastern) team,” said Eastman, whose Cougars defeated EWU 87-59 in last year’s season opener. “They played so very hard. I thought they played extremely well together.

“But there’s a new attitude there, I don’t think there’s any question about that. I saw it in the first four or five minutes of the game.”

Eastman’s Cougars, who did not have the services of backup guard Kareem Jackson (ankle) or backup forward Bill Coby (illness) Sunday night, now have a 13-day layoff before traveling east to face Canisius Dec. 8 in the first round of the Carrier Classic in Syracuse, N.Y.

Canisius knocked the Cougars out of the National Invitation Tournament with an 89-80 quarterfinal win last March.

Wash. St. 90, Eastern Wash. 58

EASTERN WASHINGTON (0-1)

Dean 4-7 2-2 10, Groves 0-2 3-4 3, Porter 5-10 2-3 12, Carter 5-11 0-0 13, Thompson 1-5 2-2 4, Egan 1-6 2-2 4, King 1-4 0-1 3, Sims 3-11 3-5 9. Totals 20-56 14-19 58.

WASHINGTON STATE (2-0)

Hendrickson 4-6 2-2 10, Mack 4-6 2-6 10, Fontaine 8-11 4-5 24, Antrum 3-8 0-0 8, Ellison 6-10 2-2 15, Hutchens 0-0 0-0 0, Daniel 5-7 3-3 13, Scott 1-8 0-0 3, Johnson 3-6 1-1 7, Slotemaker 9-9 0-0 0. Totals 34-62 14-19 90.

Halftime-Washington State 40, Eastern Washington 28. 3-Point goals- Eastern Washington 4-15 (Carter 3-6, King 1-4), Washington State 8-19 (Fontaine 4-5, Antrum 2-4, Ellison 1-4, Scott 1-6). Fouled out-Eastern Washington, Dean. Rebounds-Eastern Washington 26 (Sims 4), Washington State 44 (Mack 7, Daniel 7). Assists-Eastern Washington 7 (Thompson 4), Washington State 19 (Ellison 5). Total fouls-Eastern Washington 19, Washington State 15. Technicals-Hendrickson, hanging on rim. A-7,974.

, DataTimes