Cougars endure at Arena

When Air Force officers travel to Spokane, they are often headed to the base at Fairchild, home of the service’s survival school.

There they face intense pressure, trials that stretch their limits and separate the best from the merely good.

On Saturday just down the road at the Spokane Arena, it was the Washington State University Cougars who were taught a lesson in survival. And it came, appropriately enough, at the hands of the Air Force Falcons.

The Cougars survived, holding off Air Force 75-68 in an off-campus home basketball game before a subdued crowd of 7,024.

“At the end of the day, they’ve taken care of business,” WSU coach Ken Bone said of the Cougars, who raised their non-conference mark to 8-2. “So even though today we did not play our best basketball … our guys prevailed and we got the ‘W,’ so it was good.”

“We came out kind of nonchalant,” said freshman point guard Reggie Moore, who posted his first career double-double with 16 points – 7 of 7 from the free-throw line – and 10 assists. “But we got the ‘W.’ ”

The Falcons played without leading scorer (17.1 points per game) and rebounder (7.1) Grant Parker, a 6-foot-8 senior sidelined with a pulled groin. It didn’t seem to matter much.

Freshman guards Michael Lyons, whose previous career high was 12 points, and Todd Fletcher, torched the Cougars for career bests of 25 and 13 points, respectively. Parker’s replacement, 6-8 senior Mike McLain, also set a career high with 11 points.

Despite the self-described “nonchalant” early effort, despite Klay Thompson’s worst half of the season (two points on 1-of-5 shooting), despite missing all seven of their 3-point attempts, the Cougars took a seven-point lead into halftime.

They quickly doubled it, as first Moore – on a Thompson assist – and Thompson – on a Moore assist – hit back-to-back 3s, part of 9-0 blitz in less than 2 minutes that gave WSU its largest lead, 40-26, with 16:34 left.

But the Falcons (5-3) kept contact, mainly behind Lyons’ hot hand. At one point midway through the second half, the 6-6 guard had 12 consecutive Air Force points.

When the Falcons finally got free on three hard back cuts the WSU lead was down to 57-55 with 6:49 remaining.

“Air Force did a really nice job there,” Bone said. “Other than that, I thought our guys dealt with a few short runs Air Force made.”

Moore came to the rescue, stopping the 7-0 run – in 37 seconds – with two free throws. After Fletcher scored on a drive, Marcus Capers got free on a back cut, Nik Koprivica found him for a dunk and WSU was off again. The Cougars strung together two defensive stops, pairing them with a Capers “and-one” fastbreak and two more Moore free throws.

The lead was 66-57 and Air Force never got closer than six again.

Thompson finished with 19 points and Capers added a career-best 12 points, with his 5-of-6 shooting, including three dunks.

Washington St. 75, Air Force 68

Percentages: FG .464, FT .846. 3-Point Goals: 5-22, .227 (Lyons 2-4, Fletcher 1-3, Fow 1-5, McLain 1-5, Washington 0-1, Bohannon 0-1, Stewart 0-2). Team Rebounds: 3. Blocked Shots: None. Turnovers: 8 (Washington 3, Stewart, McLain, Fletcher, Lyons, Broekhuis). Steals: 7 (Washington 3, Broekhuis 2, McLain, Fletcher). Technical Fouls: None.

Percentages: FG .510, FT .760. 3-Point Goals: 4-15, .267 (Thompson 3-6, Moore 1-3, Lodwick 0-1, Thames 0-1, Motum 0-2, Koprivica 0-2). Team Rebounds: 0. Blocked Shots: 3 (Casto, Koprivica, Harthun). Turnovers: 13 (Casto 3, Moore 3, Lodwick 2, Capers 2, Thompson 2, Thames). Steals: 4 (Thompson 2, Harthun 1, Motum 1). Technical Fouls: None.

Halftime–Washington State 31, Air Force 24. A–7,024.