Cougars Struggle In 88-75 Victory

Overconfidence should not be a problem for Washington State when it opens its men’s basketball season for real Nov. 24 against Gonzaga in the Spokane Arena.

Not unless the Cougars are cursed with memories so short they can’t recall their struggles during Friday night’s 88-75 exhibition win over the badly out-manned High Five America Patriots.

WSU suffered obviously from the absence of point guard Donminic Ellison and power forward Tavares Mack, who were suspended for the exhibition after being charged as minors in possession in an on-campus incident earlier this fall.

But it still should not have been as difficult as it was. Not against an eight-man team of former college players whose only win in five exhibition games has come against Westmont College, an NAIA school in Santa Barbara, Calif.

“Thank God, there’s a football game tomorrow,” lamented second-year Cougars coach Kevin Eastman, “so we can see a good athletic event.”

On the positive side, Mark Hendrickson played like it meant something, treating a Friel Court crowd of 3,189 - many of them holdovers from a Cougar volleyball game that preceded the exhibition - to a 20-point performance that also included a game-high 10 rebounds.

Isaac Fontaine added a game-high 24 points and provided a brief lift by scoring five points and making two steals during a 12-second span early in the second half.

And Shamon Antrum got hot from 3-point range, making five of eight long-range attempts to finish with 19 points.

But beyond that, there wasn’t much to recommend about a veteran team that has been picked to finish in the top three or four teams in the Pacific-10 Conference this year.

“It wasn’t too good,” admitted Hendrickson, who was 7 for 13 from the field, with three dunks, but only 6 for 12 from the freethrow line. “Sometimes before games like this you’re thinking, ‘Great, this is just going to make practice that much tougher next week,’ because you know it’s a no-win game.

“It was good, though, to put the uniform on again and get out and play in front of people.”

Even with all five starters back from last year’s 18-12 team that made it to the quarterfinals of the National Invitation Tournament, the Cougars can stand to become acquainted.

Newcomers Chris Scott, Cameron Johnson, Bill Coby and Kareem Jackson, who started for Ellison at the point, all looked capable of contributing in time.

But they seemed occasionally tentative on the fastbreak and mildly confused in the Cougars’ halfcourt offense. And it didn’t help matter when Jackson left the game early in the second half with an ankle injury he sustained midway through the first half.

Jackson’s injury, coupled with a bruised hip suffered by Carlos Daniel, prevented Eastman from pressing as much as he would have liked after intermission.

Jackson finished with two points and three assists in 22 minutes.

WSU, despite an awful 13-for30 effort from the foul line, built an early lead by raising the tempo to a level High Five America couldn’t handle. And it won by keeping it there.

The Cougars went on the break whenever possible, pressed only selectively - but effectively - and had the Patriots grasping defensively less than 12 minutes into the game.

Hendrickson ran the floor unchecked and checked in at intermission with 13 points, three dunks and seven boards.

The Cougars play at Friel Court again Wednesday night in at 7 in another exhibition against the Townsville Suns, a touring team from Australia.

Ellison and Mack will play in that game, according to Eastman.

, DataTimes