By The Way, Cougs Top Falcons But 89-71 Win Over Seattle Pacific Hardly Gets Ncaa Tournament Calling

Washington State could have mailed in Tuesday night’s men’s basketball win over Seattle Pacific.

To the selection committee of the National Invitation Tournament, at least.

But if the Cougars hope to impress the guys who arrange dates to the prom of postseason dances, the NCAA, they’re going to have to do more than simply sashay past the Division-II Falcons.

That’s what they did Tuesday night, winning 89-71 as junior forward Mark Hendrickson scored 24 points and pulled down nine rebounds in front of a benign Friel Court crowd of 3,088.

The lopsided non-conference win raised WSU’s overall record to 14-8, which might impress the NIT. But two of those wins are against non-Division I opponents and mean nothing in the formula that the more prestigious NCAA uses to determine its 64-team field.

Therefore, Saturday’s 3 p.m. matchup against Pacific-10 Conference rival Washington in Seattle seemed to interest WSU coach Kevin Eastman and his players much more than any thought of celebrating the way they schooled the hard-working Falcons of the Pacific West Conference.

“I told our kids after the game that the biggest thing we have to do right now is get to practice at 3:45 (today),” Eastman said.

“If you’re celebrating this, maybe you should be at a Division II school,” added Hendrickson. “I just think we were on cruise control after the first 5 minutes.”

There was certainly no sense of urgency in the way WSU dealt with SPU. The Cougars did blitz the Falcons with a 14-0 run to start the game, but then went lethargic the rest of the night, turning the ball over 21 times and allowing the Falcons far too many good looks at the basket.

As a result, Falcons reserve Eric Lovak managed to throw in 20 points - few of which were enthusiastically contested. The 5-foot-11 senior guard made five of SPU’s 12 3-pointers and got off 14 field-goal tries, five more than the Cougars allowed Oregon’s high-scoring Orlando Williams in Saturday’s 76-59 road rout of the 19th-ranked Ducks.

“You can’t make any excuses,” Hendrickson said. “It was a game that shouldn’t have been scheduled.”

The game was scheduled just prior to the start of the regular season to fill a gap in the schedule that resulted from the sudden departure of former WSU coach Kelvin Sampson to Oklahoma.

“Scheduling was the least of my worries at that point,” Eastman said. “I was worried about getting enough players to practice.”

A better late get was the Cougars’ 5-10 junior-college transfer Shamon Antrum, who threw in 13 points and dished out four assists against the Falcons.”We never really ran a play all night,” he admitted. “It’s time to get back to work.”

One bright spot for WSU was the play of sophomore point guard Donminic Ellison, who broke out of a shooting slump and scored 16 points to go with eight assists.

“It was nice to see that,” Eastman said. “I thought his rhythm was really good tonight. Hopefully, he’s back.”

WSU 89, Seattle Pacific 71

SEATTLE PACIFIC (17-8)

Shephard 5-10 0-0 11, McGilvery 1-3 0-0 2, Selby 1-6 0-0 3, King 4-9 0-0 9, Behrens 0-4 0-0 0, Lovrak 7-14 1-2 20, Ping 3-4 0-0 9, Deal 5-10 2-3 12, Channing 0-0 0-0 0, Been 0-0 0-0 0, van der Veen 2-3 0-0 5. Ttl 28-63 3-5 71.

WASHINGTON STATE (14-8)

Hendrickson 9-12 6-7 24, Mack 1-3 2-2 4, Fontaine 2-8 0-0 4, Ellison 6-8 0-0 16, Antrum 2-4 8-10 13, Warmenhoven 0-1 1-2 1, Topper 0-2 0-0 0, Griffin 2-7 1-2 5, Bortles 1-1 2-2 4, Daniel 1-4 0-0 2, Corkrum 3-5 0-0 6, Vik 5-7 0-0 10. Totals 32-62 20-25 89.

Halftime-Washington St. 40, Seattle Pacific 31. 3-Point goals-Seattle Pacific 12-26 (Shephard 1-2, Selby 1-5, King 1-3, Behrens 0-2, Lovrak 5-8, Ping 3-4, Deal 0-1, van der Veen 1-1). Washington St. 5-12 (Hendrickson 0-1, Ellison 4-6, Antrum 1-2, Topper 0-1, Griffin 0-2). Fouled out-None. Rebounds-Seattle Pacific 27 (McGilvery 6), Washington St. 41 (Hendrickson 9). Assists-Seattle Pacific 15 (King 4), Washington St. 22 (Ellison 8). Total fouls-Seattle Pacific 17, Washington St. 8. A-3,088.