UI, WSU hope to get defensive

In Idaho’s last men’s basketball game, it gave up 90 points to Washington. In Washington State’s last game, it allowed BYU to shot 55.3 percent and score 76 points.

The last time Idaho and WSU hooked up, the teams combined for 73 points last November. The Palouse rivals will try to rediscover their defensive roots when they clash today at 2 at Friel Court.

“We just have to become much better defensively for starters,” WSU coach Dick Bennett said after a 76-68 loss to BYU on Tuesday at the Spokane Arena.

The Vandals (0-2) are probably thinking the same thing. The 25th-ranked Huskies drubbed Idaho 90-67 in Seattle on Tuesday.

“Bigger, faster, stronger, better,” UI coach Leonard Perry said of Washington. “We knew we had to get off to a good start, but we didn’t come out with that type of intensity.”

Both teams have injury concerns. WSU (1-1) was without three of its top seven players against BYU. Idaho forward Desmond Nwoke has missed the first two games with a sore knee, but he practiced Thursday.

“The knee (Nwoke) had surgery on is fine, but he had been so gimpy on it that it put pressure on the other and it caused chronic soreness,” Perry said.

WSU has won two straight, including a 37-36 victory last year on Jeff Varem’s dunk with 1.2 seconds left, and seven of the last eight in the series. The Cougars are 23-0 all-time at Friel Court in November.

“If we can somehow eliminate the easy hoops we gave up (against BYU), get some consistent play from a few people – guys like (sophomore guards) Kyle Weaver and Josh Akognon actually played better last year as freshmen,” Bennett said.