Cougars Perk Up, Win Easily WSU Launches Its New Season, Shows Speed, Defense To Give Portland State A Sound Beating

Washington State University men’s basketball opened it’s 100th year of play to, coincidentally, about 100 people at Friel Court Monday.

OK, actually was more like 1,657 if you believe the WSU attendance-takers. Either way, what those fans saw was drastically different from last year. Heck, this was a drastically different team from last week.

The new-look, up-tempo, 1-0 Cougars ran roughshod over Portland State, 83-55.

“Last year when we won, really it was always pretty close,” said WSU guard David Adams. “This year, we have so many weapons and we can pull away from them.”

They also have quickness, long arms and the ability to get up the floor. And when they weren’t running on offense, they were scrambling on defense. The Cougars came up with 14 steals and forced the Vikings into 33 percent shooting.

“That’s the backbone of this team,” said WSU coach Paul Graham. “If you can defend, rebound and don’t commit turnovers, you’re going to be all right.”

Two out of three isn’t bad. The Cougars outrebounded the Vikings 48-25, forced 14 steals, but committed 22 turnovers.

“You can still see the youth in our basketball team,” said Graham. “Marcus (Moore) must realize that he is playing at a higher level and he can’t turn it on and off like he did in high school.”

But in all fairness, it was hard for the Cougars to not feel as if they were back in high school. Portland State (0-1) had no size inside and no chance once WSU decided to start playing defense.

After allowing the Vikings to stick around much of the first half, the Cougars came out in the second half and shut down Portland State. The Vikings only managed eight points in the first 10 minutes of the second half. The Cougars, on the other hand, went for 26 in that same time period.

That allowed Washington State to stretch the lead from 37-25 to 63-33.

“Every game, you just keep getting better and better,” said Moore. “This game, I knew where David was going to be, where Eddie (Miller) was going to be. I knew where they wanted to run to.”

Adams did much of the damage that wasn’t done on the fast break. The sophomore guard was tentative taking his shot as a freshman last year, but has clearly shaken that habit. He was pulling up from behind the arc, faking and popping into the lane and filling the lane on the break. He finished with a game-high 19 points.

“(With post players in the game) it makes things easier,” said Adams. “Tonight, I was able to dive and pull and shoot my regular shot. (Last year) I had to shoot the rainbow.”

“I told him we wanted to force the action,” said Graham. “We don’t want to sit back and wait. We will make more mistakes, but I can live with that.”

If the Cougars can pick the ball off the offensive glass as they did against Portland State, some of those mistakes will be minimized. The Cougars picked up 18 rebounds on the offensive end. Three of center J. Locklier’s seven boards were on the offensive end of things.

Portland State was only able to scrape together seven offensive boards. In fact, nobody on the Vikings team had more than three total rebounds.

“I don’t care who they are, you outrebound a team by that much, you’re going to be in good shape,” said Graham.

The Cougars will play host to Colorado State at 7 p.m. in the Spokane Arena on Saturday.

Washington St. 83, Portland St. 55

Portland State (0-1) - Dean 0-2 7-10 7, Boxley 1-1 2-4 4, Madison 2-6 2-2 8, Wilcher 3-6 2-4 9, Briggs 0-2 0-1 0, Jordan 0-3 0-0 0, Thomas 1-1 2-2 4, Lang 1-6 0-0 2, Bailey 1-3 0-0 2, Lackey 3-9 3-6 11, Washington 3-7 2-3 8.

Washington State (1-0) - Little 2-3 4-4 8, Miller 4-7 1-1 9, Locklier 2-5 5-5 9, Moore 1-5 7-8 9, Adams 7-12 2-2 19, McNair 5-15 1-2 12, Graham 1-3 0-0 2, Clark 3-8 0-0 6, Riley 2-4 3-5 7, Murray 1-1 0-1 2, Rower 0-0 0-1 0.

Halftime - Washington State 37, Portland State 25. 3-Point goals -Portland State 5-15 (Madison 2-4, Lackey 2-6, Wilcher 1-2, Lang 0-2, Washington 0-1); Washington State - 4-15 (Adams 3-5, McNair 1-5, Clark 0-3, Graham 0-1). Fouled out - Portland State, Wilcher; Washington State, Miller. Rebounds - Portland State 25 (Lackey 3, Briggs 3, Boxley 3, Dean 3); Washington State - 48 (Little 10). Total fouls - Portland State 25, Washington State 26. A - 1,675.