Ernie Kent to cold Cougars: “keep shooting”

The Cougars have won just one of their last seven games and a cold-shooting streak is mostly to blame.

During WSU’s one win in that span, over Stanford at home, the Cougars shot 55 percent from the field. But the Cougars have shot better than 38 percent during just one game during that time span and the team’s scoring average has dropped from 73.4 points per game after the team’s home win over Oregon to 70.5.

The physical rigors of the season are likely partially to blame for WSU’s shooting downturn but when the Cougars were shooting well early in the season the credit was given to a free-flowing style and improved confidence.

So it seems to naturally follow that the recent losing compounds the cold shooting. Coach Ernie Kent said after the team’s loss at UO on Sunday, in which the Cougars shot just 37 percent, that the Cougars won’t change what they do offensively.

“We are who we are and we know that. We know we need to shoot it and everything else,” Kent said. “We have our limitations in some areas. We need to shoot the ball and to do that you’ve got to play with a lot of confidence, a lot of courage. We didn’t play with it tonight.”