Looking back at Oregon State

Washington State’s fast start wasn’t enough to carry the Cougars to the finish line at Oregon State.

Our game story can be read here and our day-after post is below.

— The Cougars had a good offensive game plan to attack OSU’s zone inside this time. The Cougars couldn’t shoot at all in the first game against OSU, a 62-47 home loss. This time around WSU shot 15 of 30 on 2-pointers and only one of those baskets came on a fast break.

The guards were better able to penetrate and when they did the big men had success diving from the high post and forward Josh Hawkinson did a great job finding cutters, finishing with five assists.
Really, that should have been enough to win the game if the Cougars hadn’t simultaneously had one of their worst outside shooting games, hitting just 4 of 21 from 3. If even one or two more of those outside shots fall, WSU comes away with a big road win.

— You’ve got to think Ernie Kent liked what he got out of Junior Longrus yesterday. The junior forward had eight rebounds in just 15 minutes and four of those came on offense.

Longrus probably isn’t going to suddenly become a scoring threat for the Cougars but he was one of WSU’s most active players last year and yesterday we saw that on the boards and on defense, where from my vantage point he seemed to do the best job of playing help defense down low, particularly on Jarmal Reid.

Stats and notes from the game:

— The Cougars made 8 of their first 9 free throws but went 0-6 from the line in the second half.

— DaVonté Lacy hit a 3-pointer on the first possession of the game, which gives him 230 for his career, which is tied for fourth all-time at WSU.

— But Lacy only scored five points, ending a streak of double-figure scoring games at eight.

— Josh Hawkinson led the Cougars with 16 points and 10 rebounds, giving him his 14th double-double of the year.

— WSU suffered its first loss of the season when leading at halftime. The Cougars are now 8-1 when entering the second half with a lead.

Here are some quotes from after the game:

Hawkinson on WSU’s success rebounding on offense: “They’re a slow-paced team and you know they’re not going to push the ball up the court so we concentrate more people to go attack the offensive boards, which gave us a lot more opportunities.”

Lacy on Jarmal Reid: “Jarmal played really well today, 20 points. He was a beast inside. I think that’s where the mismatch was and they exploited it.”

Kent on WSU’s hot start: “It was the best defense we’ve played in the first 15 minutes of a game and then all of a sudden we stopped paying attention to detail, they gained the momentum of the game and made it a possession-by-possession game.”