Cougars, Eagles will clash in season opener

PULLMAN – DaVonte Lacy knows it’s coming. Eventually, opposing teams are going to pressure the heck out of Washington State’s guards, knowing the Cougars don’t have a proven ball-handler without dismissed former point guard Reggie Moore. “I think people are going to try to challenge us because we don’t have the depth that we used to have or the talent that we used to have in Reggie,” Lacy said before WSU’s practice on Friday. “I think people are going to try to challenge us, but we’re working on it so we’ll be ready for whatever people throw at us.” WSU begins its regular-season schedule this afternoon with a 4:30 game against Eastern Washington at Beasley Coliseum. The Cougars are coming off a 62-50 exhibition win over Saint Martin’s, a game WSU trailed for much of the first half before pulling away late. “We learned a lot from it, that we can’t just come out and judge a book by its cover,” Lacy said. “We have to come out ready to play every game like it’s our last.” EWU lost most of its primary scorers after finishing fourth in the Big Sky last season. Forward Collin Chiverton is the Eagles’ best returning player, an athletic, 6-foot-6 player who averaged nearly 14 points per game last season as a junior. Four players scored in double figures in EWU’s 96-70 exhibition win over Concordia on Sunday. “Looking at last year’s video, we expected to see more of a press and we prepared for it and we didn’t see hardly any press at all,” WSU coach Ken Bone said of last season’s 75-49 win over the Eagles. “They did a little three-quarters press for a few possessions and that was it, so we’ve prepared for a press but I don’t know if we’ll see it or not.”