Fast Break

College basketball

WSU debuts in front of 3,000

Washington State unveiled the nation’s 10th-ranked men’s basketball team Saturday in an intrasquad scrimmage and there were about 3,000 stars – the 3,000 or so who showed up to watch at Bohler Gym, which was packed.

“It probably outdrew many of the home games our first couple years here,” WSU head coach Tony Bennett (above) said. “Obviously, it’s around a football game so there are people here, but that just blew me away.”

The appreciative group didn’t see the best of Cougars basketball – “The expectations we have, we feel we should be right there right now, but that’s not the case with anybody,” senior Robbie Cowgill said – but they didn’t seem to care.

Bennett introduced the format – three 11-minute scrimmage sessions – and the players by class – the seniors received a standing ovation – before the noon scrimmage got under way.

He told the crowd, “One thing established for us (last year) was a legitimate home-court advantage. Aron Baynes said there would be 20 people here, so it’s good to see so many of you here.”

For the players who have been in Pullman for the evolution of a 10th-place Pac-10 team to one that is ranked 10th in the nation, the reception was appreciated.

“It got pretty loud in there,” Cowgill said. “It felt pretty cool to have people excited just for a scrimmage.”

“Individual guys at times did some nice things,” Bennett said. “As they got fatigued, you saw some sloppy play with turnovers.”

The scrimmage sessions pitted, in order, the starting group vs. reserves (21-12, starters); a mixture of everyone (19-14 for the group led by Kyle Weaver); and the top bigs vs. the starting guards (guards, 20-6).

“I was teasing the bigs in the locker room, ‘Well, it’s a guards’ game,’ ” Bennett joked. “Aron said, ‘If the bigs don’t finish, yeah.’ “

“I don’t think it says much right there,” senior guard Derrick Low said of the final session. “In the end it’s going to come down to us all relying on each other, because some days our guards are going to be off and we are going to need Baynes and Robbie in the post to do some work for us.”

College football

They should have used a hoop

No, they weren’t playing basketball.

Weber State beat host Portland State 73-68 to set an NCAA all-division record for most points in a game with 141.

The previous record for most points by two teams was 136, set in 1968 when North Park beat North Central 104-32 in a Division III game.

The Division I record was 133, set in 2004 when San Jose State beat Rice 70-63. Before that, Middle Tennessee’s 70-58 victory over Idaho in 2001 for 128 points was the record.

Back in 1916, Georgia Tech beat Cumberland 222-0, but that was before the NCAA kept track of records.

Weber State’s Cameron Higgins passed for 334 yards and four touchdowns.