Cold-Starting Cougars Fall In Texas WSU Can’T Overcome Bad First Half, Loses To Texas-Pan American Broncs 55 Cougars 52

It just wasn’t to be. A two-game win streak for the Washington State men’s basketball team, that is.

After the Cougars snapped a 15-game losing streak Saturday, they flew in here for their last non-conference game on Monday, a matchup against Texas-Pan American.

And it’s a game that figured to be very winnable for the Cougars, although he Broncs had won nearly twice as many games. In the national RPI ratings, WSU is ranked 193, Texas-Pan Am 223.

But what should have been an encore performance from Saturday, turned into more of the same from previous games.

The Cougars struggled early, fell behind by 15 at the half and wound up losing 55-52 to the Broncs.

Brian Merriweather accounted for nearly a third of the Texas-Pan Am total with 17 points and broke the school’s single-season record for 3-pointers in the process. He has made 111 this season after hitting 3 of 11 Monday.

The Broncs (12-15) led 35-20 at halftime, but made just 6 of 22 shots from the field the second half.

The door was open for the Cougars, but they couldn’t find the handle.

WSU (6-19), which shot just 19 percent from the field in the first half, making 5 of 27, outscored the Broncs 32-20 in the second half behind 12-of-21 shooting, but it wasn’t good enough to make up for the icy first half.

Watara Banks had 15 points and nine rebounds for Texas-Pan Am. He hit 8 of 12 free throws.

Mike Bush led Washington State with 14 points and he and Milton Riley had a team-leading six rebounds each as the Cougars lost the battle on the glass, 39-35.

Chris Crosby, who had scored a career-high 33 ponits to lead Saturday’s 81-78 overtime win over California in Pullman, made just 2 of 12 shots, going 0-for-4 on 3-pointers, and finished with four points.

Crosby wasn’t the only cold Cougar. David Adams missed all five shots he took, four of them 3-pointers, and wound up with six points on 6-of-8 free-throw shooting.

The Cougars were just 2 of 13 on 3s.

Texas-Pan American, meanwhile, launched 20 3-pointers, but allowed the Cougars to hang around by making just five.

Twice earlier this season WSU had put two wins together, but both came within the first six games of the season when the Cougars went 4-2. They opened 5-3 before hitting the skids.