COUGARS

We've put together a report out of the Cougars' come-from-behind 85-79 win at Santa Clara tonight in the first contest on a 14-day, six-game road trip. Read on for more.
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• We listened to the first half, then watched the second – thanks Brett for the link – while still keeping up with Bud Nameck's call of the game and his postgame. That, along with copious notes and the game-tracking software, allowed us to put together this report for tomorrow's S-R. ... As far as I could tell, all the Santa Clara free throws were in no way any form of homerism – all three officials do Pac-10 games – but were more the result of one team being more aggressive than the other. In the first half that was Santa Clara. In the second half, WSU picked up the attack and got to the line just as much – actually, the Cougars shot 34 after halftime and SC 24. When you're passive, and WSU was early, you're not going to shoot a lot of free throws. ... The two new offensive weapons, Faisal Aden, who started, and Patrick Simon, didn't play all that well, combining for 4 of 11 shooting and five turnovers. But Marcus Capers, the subject of our feature today, stepped up with 14 points, just two off his career high, and seven rebounds. DeAngelo Casto, who Ken Bone said played with too much energy tonight, had 15 and 10. The two were 10 of 15 from the floor combined. ... Lost in all the flotsam of an overtime game is the efficiency of WSU's defense – when it could keep Santa Clara off the free throw line. The Broncos shot 30.5 percent from the floor, though better than that (32.3 percent) from beyond the arc. ... The Cougars also got a push with the Broncos on the boards, with Santa Clara grabbing one more. ...

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• That's all for now. We'll be back in the morning. Until then ...

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