Tale of the tape: WSU 66, Arkansas-Pine Bluff 38
COUGARS
FROM PULLMAN -- Not that this one needs a whole lot of additional explanation -- WSU is simply a much better team than Arkansas-Pine Bluff, and that showed -- but we have our usual capsulated game recap for you. Read on.
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PLAYER OF THE GAME -- Brock Motum might not have been real noticeable on the offensive end tonight, even though he tied for a game-high with 14 points. But he also had four assists and eight rebounds, and did a good job in the second half of catching the ball in the middle of UAPB's zone and getting the ball to the right guys in the right positions to make plays.
PLAY OF THE GAME -- One of Motum's assists was a little shovel pass to Mike Ladd, who came off the left baseline to catch the pass and rip a one-handed jam. That play put WSU ahead 32-16 and capped an 18-0 run that put this one out of reach.
STAT OF THE GAME -- Hard to ignore the assist numbers. WSU assisted on 20 of its 23 made field goals, thanks in large part to its large players -- Motum, D.J. Shelton and Brett Boese each had four assists, a byproduct of WSU getting the ball inside against the zone and facilitating the offense through its bigs. The Cougars also wound up with a 39-24 rebounding margin, another indication of how much UAPB really was just overmatched in this game.
QUOTABLE -- "That was a tough road trip we just came back from. Two losses that could have been wins and we could have easily been 5-1 by now, but the tables didn’t turn our way, so we just knew tonight we wanted to come in here and get better." -- WSU forward Brock Motum
NEXT UP -- WSU vs. Idaho, 7 p.m. Wednesday on the Pac-12 Network. The Vandals are 1-3 with their lone win coming against Green Bay. They wilted late after leading in games against New Mexico and Wright State.
Christian Caple can be reached at christianc@spokesman.com. Twitter: @ChristianCaple