Second half surge lifts Cougars over Idaho State

PULLMAN – Nothing about Ernie Kent’s home debut as Washington State men’s basketball coach surprised him.

Not when Idaho State trailed by only one point at half, and not when DaVonte Lacy and Josh Hawkinson had big second-half performances to lift the Cougars to an 80-68 win Friday night, their first under Kent.

“I just told my staff that everyone is going to be that tough this year,” Kent said. “They’re just going to be grind-it-out games until we hit our rhythm.”

WSU limped into the locker with a 32-31 halftime lead after struggling against ISU’s zone defense. Lacy had only four points.

That wasn’t good enough for Kent, who challenged his senior captain.

“I saw him and Dex (Dexter Kernich-Drew) in the first half, they were a combined 2 of 11,” Kent said. “Your two captains, your two starters, your two leaders cannot be a combined 2 of 11.”

Lacy opened the second half with a 3-pointer and finished with 25 points, with six 3s after the break.

“Literally everybody on the team just kept telling me to shoot,” Lacy said. “They did a great job of finding me. In a zone, you’re not going to do it by yourself. All of my 3s were off of assists, that was a testament to my teammates finding me and I finally hit some shots.”

Lacy may be a household name to Cougar fans, but it was sophomore Hawkinson who one-upped him with 26 points, on 10-of-15 shooting, and 15 rebounds.

“We focused on getting the ball in the middle and then look to the outside more to collapse on the zone,” Hawkinson said. “My teammates found me in the middle and I was fortunate to knock down open shots.”

The fans in Pullman got their first glimpse of freshman point guard Ny Redding, prominent in Kent’s rebuilding project. He had four assists in 28 minutes, turning the ball over once, pacing a developing fast-break offense.

“I feel like we’re adjusting just fine,” Redding said. “It’s rough staying in shape. I feel like once we continue to get used to running and getting up the floor that’s when our team is going to start to play well.”

The sparse crowd didn’t surprise Kent either. The holiday break sent students away from the Palouse, but Kent believes there is an on-court element, too.

“We’ve got something to do with that. We came off a struggling road trip to come home, we gave the fans something to cheer about,” Kent said. “If you build a product, people will come. If you build a team that plays hard, plays smart, makes its free throws, knocks down its shots, plays together, win or lose, if you see the right characteristics of a team, people will come and see that.”