Cougs face ISU minus Harmeling

Washington State will not only be facing Idaho State on the road today, they’ll also be without 6-foot-7 junior Daven Harmeling, the Cougars’ sixth man.

He suffered a fractured right thumb Friday in practice and, according to a school release, will be out indefinitely. The injury to his shooting hand will possibly keep Harmeling out of the lineup for up to four weeks.

“Anytime you have an injury, new guys have a chance to step up,” said men’s basketball coach Tony Bennett, adding he’ll know more about Harmeling’s injury after Christmas.

“In any bad situation, you look for the positives. The positive in this is other guys have a chance to contribute.”

Harmeling averages 22 minutes per game off the bench, relieving either Aron Baynes or Robbie Cowgill inside on defense and adding another outside threat on offense.

Though he’s started slowly this season, hitting just 19 percent of his 3-point attempts, Harmeling was the Cougars’ best long-range shooter last season, converting 43 percent of his 3-pointers. He also hit 1 of 2 long-range shots in Thursday’s win over The Citadel and nailed another when his foot was on the line. Harmeling is averaging 6.4 points and 3.3 rebounds this season, with highs of 18 (vs. Boise State) and seven (vs. Air Force), respectively.

The Cougars will rely on 6-8 junior Caleb Forrest (2.3 rebounds per game averaging less than 10 minutes) to take up the slack on defense and 6-6 sophomore Nikola Koprivica (3.2 points in 13 minutes a game) to do the same on the offensive end.

Without Harmeling, the Cougars will be challenged by something most top-10 teams never face. After all, it’s rare when one of the nation’s top-ranked teams travels a long distance to play a non-BCS school in their gym. It’s even less often that a highly ranked team plays in Pocatello, Idaho.

Both will happen today when seventh-ranked Washington State travels to Big Sky Conference member Idaho State to meet the Bengals in Holt Arena.

Of the six teams ranked higher than WSU in the Associated Press poll, only No. 4 Texas and No. 5 Georgetown have traveled out of state this season to play a non-BCS school.

Idaho State last hosted a ranked team in 1982, when Don Monson’s Idaho team was making a national splash. The Bengals haven’t upset a ranked squad since 1979, and that took double overtime to subdue UNLV at home.

But here come the Pac-10’s Cougars, off an easy 67-45 win over The Citadel in Seattle on Thursday.

“Now we have to go on the road and play in what I’m sure will be an interesting environment at Idaho State,” Bennett said after that win. “I don’t know what we’ll see.”

WSU will see a Bengals team that is 2-7 after losing 89-49 at UCLA in its last outing Dec. 15. They’ll see 6-foot-6 junior point guard Matt Stucki, who scored a career-high 26 points against Idaho and leads ISU in scoring (12.9 points a game) and assists (22). And they’ll see a Bengals team averaging 58 points a game – but yielding 74.

The Cougars (10-0) are off to their best start since Kelvin Sampson’s team began 12-0 in the 1991-92 season. Their spotless record and high national ranking, however, doesn’t allow them to avoid a contractually obligated return game with Idaho State today. Last season WSU hosted the Bengals early on, using a 22-3 second-half run to ignite a 66-60 victory.

Since then Washington State has burst on the national spotlight, finishing second in the Pac-10, winning an NCAA tournament game and coming into this season ranked in the top 10 nationally.

The teams have played two common opponents this season, Idaho and Boise State. The Bengals defeated the Vandals in overtime 71-69 in Moscow but lost to the Broncos 93-61 at home. WSU routed Idaho in one of its three games in Pullman and rallied past BSU on the road.

Notes

WSU’s game against The Citadel was technically not a home game. KeyArena is viewed as a neutral site, so the 12,471 attendance was not a record home crowd. … Junior center Aron Baynes is 14 of 16 from the floor in his last two games. He is also 14 of 16 from the free-throw line in the last three and is shooting 80 percent from the line this season. He converted just 65 percent last year.