Cougs Meet Texas A&M; In Arena Tonight Eastern Home After Big Win Over WSU; Bulldogs To Engage Huskies In Seattle

Washington State University fans stuck at home can get a Cougar fix in Spokane tonight.

It won’t be the “Team of Destiny,” that football team seeing the sites of Southern California and preparing for Thursday’s Rose Bowl.

The WSU men’s basketball team has a home game against Texas A&M at 7 at the Arena.

Don’t expect Cougars coach Kevin Eastman to be as relaxed and glib as his football counterpart Mike Price. The Cougars are coming off an 83-82 overtime loss to Eastern Washington last week at another neutral site, the Tri-Cities Coliseum.

Eastern is also back in action tonight. The Eagles (5-4) face Central Washington (5-2) at Reece Court at 7. Also tonight at 7, Gonzaga (10-2) goes to Seattle to face the University of Washington (6-2) in Hec Edmondson Pavilion.

The loss to EWU dropped WSU to 6-4. Texas A&M is 6-3.

The Aggies are coming off a 105-60 drubbing of Maryland-Eastern Shore. Among their losses is an 83-81 setback at Arizona State.

A&M is led by junior Calvin Davis, a 6-foot-8, 205-pound forward, who averages 17.6 points and 8.3 rebounds. On the other side of the front line is 6-5, 230-pound junior forward Shanne Jones, who averages 16.8 points and 5.3 rebounds.

Another double-figure scorer, who could give the Cougars a tough time, is sophomore Jerald Brown, who averages 12.3 points and seven rebounds as a 6-8 guard.

Heading into their last game before the Pac-10 schedule starts, the Cougars are led by Rodrigo de la Fuente at 16.5 points and 7.2 rebounds. Chris Crosby is averaging 14.4 points and Carlos Daniel 14.2 points and 8.1 rebounds.

The Cougs’ first league game is next Monday at UW.

The GU-UW game should be an inside-outside battle.

Washington is led by 7-foot, 280-pound junior center Todd MacCullough, who averages 19.1 points and 8.1 rebounds. Donald Watts, a 6-4 junior guard, averages 13 points, 3.8 rebounds and 3.4 assists. The other double-figure scorer is 6-3 junior Deon Luton at 11.0.

The Zags can make up for their lack of size by gunning from the outside. Richie Frahm, who averages 12.1 points, has made 28 of 58 3-pointers. Matt Santangelo, who averages 14.6 points and 3.8 assists, is 20 of 41 from behind the line. The other bomber is Quentin Hall, who averages 9.2 points off the bench, has hit 17 of 35 3s.

Bakari Hendrix leads GU with 18.5 points and 5.2 rebounds.

While the Huskies are warming up for their meeting with the Cougars, the Bulldogs have two more non-league games, Boise State at Martin Centre on Saturday and at Idaho next Monday.

Eastern, which ended a 17-game losing streak to WSU, plays its last game before starting Big Sky play.

The Eagles, who won just seven games last year, are led by Karim Scott at 18.7 points and 7.2 rebounds. Shannon Taylor is adding 14.6 points and Deon Williams 13.3 points and 5.8 rebounds.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: Games tonight Texas A&M vs. WSU: 7 p.m. at the Arena Central at Eastern: 7 p.m. at Reese Court Gonzaga at Washington: 7 p.m. in Seattle