Cougars Drive By Eagles WSU Rolls 80-46 At Eastern

There is no denying that Eastern Washington men’s basketball team has made vast strides in its second season under coach Steve Aggers.

Those steps just weren’t very obvious during the 80-46 thumping the Eagles took from Washington State Saturday night.

The unbeaten Cougars barged boldly into Reese Court and handed Aggers and his young team a symbolic road map showing just how far the twisting, bumpy road to respectability stretches.

“I’ve been here a year and a half and that’s the worst loss since I’ve been here,” Aggers admitted after watching his team freeze up early and struggle at both ends of the floor. “A humbling, humiliating, embarrassing loss on our home court. I don’t know what else I can say.

“A good old-fashioned butt-kicking was all it was.” Isaac Fontaine, WSU’s All-Pacific-10 Conference shooting guard, connected on 4 of 7 3-point attempts and finished with a game-high 23 points as the Cougars raised their record to 5-0 by defeating EWU for the 17th consecutive time, dating back to 1952.

Junior forward Carlos Daniel added 16 points and eight rebounds for WSU, which smothered the Eagles defensively from the opening tip and scored the game’s first 10 points. The Cougars established complete superiority - along with a 39-21 lead - by halftime.

The loss, witnessed by a crowd of 2,593, dropped Eastern to 3-3 and left Aggers wondering if his team can get to where it needs to be by the start of its Big Sky Conference schedule next month.

“We knew when we started to rebuild this program that we were going to have growing pains,” he said. “Yeah, we’ve got a lot of new players, and yeah, we’re a lot better than we were last year. But we’re still in the infancy stages of developing a program, and this game certainly showed that we have a ton of work yet to do and long way to go before our league starts in January.”

WSU, playing without injured freshman guard Chris Crosby (ankle) and suspended senior forward Tavares Mack, made its first five fieldgoal tries, while forcing EWU into three turnovers on its first five possessions.

The Cougars finished the game with 13 steals and five blocks and held the Eagles to just 37 percent (17 of 47) shooting from the field.

“We shot well and then we defended well early,” said WSU coach Kevin Eastman, “and I think any time you play up in leagues, it’s all about how the game starts as to whether you can play that night or not.

“I think confidence comes into play then, because we came into the game not thinking that (quick start) would happen. On film, they are much better than last year.”

Daniel felt much the same way.

“We came out and hit the first (five) shots and I think that just shocked them,” he said. “Coach has been telling us we’ve got to be able to get opponents when they’re down, and that’s exactly what we did - we jumped on them and continued to put it on them, and the scored showed that. “

The Cougars led by as many as 23 in the first half and 38 in the final 2 minutes.

The Eagles, who scored only six points in the first 9 minutes of the second half, got 11 points each from Karim Scott and reserve Luke Egan, and 10 from Kevin Lewis. But they made only 1 of 12 3-point tries and tuned the ball over 20 times while looking confused and frustrated by WSU’s aggressive defense.

“They’re an outstanding defensive team,” Aggers said of the Cougars. “They really pressure the ball and their switching caused us trouble tonight. It’s the first team we’ve played that has switched us real hard and we didn’t react to it.

“They were prepared to play hard, they executed very well in the first three minutes and then once we got behind, we just panicked.”

The Eagles will have a week to regroup before playing at Sam Houston State on Dec. 14. WSU plays at Montana on Tuesday night.

WSU 80, Eastern Washington 46

Washington State (5-0) - de la Fuente 4-10 1-5 9, Daniel 5-9 6-8 16, Johnson 2-2 0-0 4, Jackson 2-3 0-0 5, Fontaine 9-17 1-3 23, Pengelly 2-4 3-5 8, Hutchens 0-1 0-0 0, Archibald 4-10 0-0 11, Slotemaker 0-3 2-2 2, Mott 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 29-60 13-23 80.

Eastern Washington (3-3) - Sims 1-4 0-4 2, Scott 4-5 3-6 11, K. Lewis 1-7 4-6 6, McClure 0-3 1-2 1, M. Lewis 4-10 2-4 10, Garcille 0-0 0-0 0, King 1-4 0-0 2, Claus 0-0 0-2 0, Egan 5-8 0-0 11, Berger 1-3 0-0 2, Turner 0-2 1-4 1. Totals 17-46 11-28 46.

Halftime-Washington State 39, Eastern Washington 21. 3-Point goals-Washington State 9-20 (de la Fuente 0-2, Jackson 1-2, Fontaine 4-7, Pengelly 1-3, Hutchens 0-1, Archibald 3-5), Eastern Washington 1-12 (Scott 0-1, McClure 0-1, M. Lewis 0-3, King 0-3, Egan 1-3, Berger 0-1) Rebounds-Washington State 41 (Daniels 8), Eastern Washington 33 (K. Lewis 6, Egan 6). Assists-Washington State 21 (Pengelly 7), Eastern Washington 10 (McClure 3, King 3). Total fouls-Washington State 23, Eastern Washington 21.

Technicals-Washington State, Johnson. Eastern Washington, Sims. A-2,593.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo