WSU tops Missouri State 91-78 for third straight win, but Cedric Coward will miss rest of the season

PULLMAN – It took Washington State about two hours to polish off a convincing win over Missouri State on Saturday afternoon.

Afterward, It took about a minute for the Cougars’ season outlook to change in an enormous way.

A few minutes after WSU completed a 91-78 nonconference win over Missouri State, the Cougars’ third straight win and their sixth in seven games, coach David Riley delivered the news that figures to change the trajectory of his team’s season: Star wing Cedric Coward will miss the rest of the season after undergoing shoulder surgery this week.

The team’s best player, Coward had averaged 17.7 points and seven rebounds in six games, also giving WSU valuable defense. Coward, a veteran who played two seasons for Riley at Eastern Washington, went down with a shoulder injury after the club’s win over EWU on Nov. 21.

Riley did not comment on the matter after the game, but it seems likely Coward could secure a medical redshirt and return for another season. Whether he wants to might be the deciding factor for Coward, who tested the NBA waters before transferring to WSU earlier this year.

The bad news for WSU didn’t stop there. Freshman guard Marcus Wilson will miss the rest of the season after undergoing shoulder surgery, and transfer wing Rihards Vavers will “most likely” miss the remainder of the year after breaking bones in both of his hands, Riley said. Vavers initially suffered an injury in the team’s season opener, only to get reinjured last week against Nevada. Wilson went down against Iowa on Nov. 15.

Those add up to three costly losses for the Cougars, who have been shorthanded all season. Freshman guard Kase Wynott returned Saturday after missing the previous two games. Freshman center Dimitrije Vukicevic appears headed for a redshirt year. That leaves WSU with nine healthy scholarship players. Riley played all nine in Saturday’s game.

The Cougars fell behind 9-2 to start the game, and even when they made up some ground, they couldn’t seem to pull away. Missouri State’s ball pressure was bothering WSU and its ball-handlers, who couldn’t get the group into sets and looks it wanted. The Bears were the aggressors.

All of that changed in the second half. The Cougars connected on 7 of 11 3-pointers in the second half. Guard Isaiah Watts and Dane Erikstrup scored 20 points apiece, and three other Cougars scored in double figures: LeJuan Watts with 17 points, Nate Calmese with 14 and Ethan Price with 12. WSU pulled away with a 57-point second half.

The Cougars (9-2), who return to action Wednesday to face rival Washington in Seattle, opened up a lead as big as 18. They used a 10-0 run to go up 57-43, and moments later, they secured an 18-point lead with five straight points.

“Offensively, in the second half, we came in and played the right way,” Riley said. “The ball was zipping around. We got some open 3s. Dane did a great job establishing himself in the post. The end of the first half was done with defense. I think they scored two points in the last 5:30. I think that was a stat we talked about at halftime. We came in, we finished the half defensively. That’s what gave us the lead.”

“I felt like they were just a little tired,” Erikstrup said of Missouri State. “They weren’t really closing out to 3-point shooters. We got a lot of wide-open looks. The skip passes on the back side were wide open. I don’t know what it was, but we were getting open looks and hitting a good amount of shots.”

Still, WSU’s outing was hardly perfect. The Cougars connected on 18 of 28 free throws (64%). At one point , that number was 6 for 15. Wynott missed all four of his free throws, and Price missed both of his. Calmese went 4 for 6; Isaiah Watts connected on all four; Erikstrup went 6 for 8; and ND Okafor knocked down both of his foul shots.

It’s a concerning trend for the Cougars. They hit just 10 of 18 free throws last weekend against Boise State. Before hitting 6 of 9 against Nevada, WSU went 8 for 15 against SMU and 10 for 18 against Fresno State. With the exception of the Nevada game, all those figures are in the 50% range. It’s not where Riley and his team want to be.

“We have a great free-throw shooting team. That has not showed for the last few days,” Riley said. “I think part of that is just us being on the road. What was it, five straight games or something like that on the road – guys not having their same routine, not being in the gym as much. We’ll get that rhythm back.”

If there’s good news for the Cougars , it’s that they’ve trudged through the bad news while winning games. All the areas of their game they’re trying to improve – turnovers, free-throw shooting and slow starts – have mostly come in wins. When March comes and WSU needs a strong resume for an NCAA Tournament bid, these wins will all count the same.

Where the Cougars might need to improve most in Coward’s absence the most is at the end of games. On Saturday, after opening up an 18-point lead, WSU allowed Missouri State to pull within 13 with 2 minutes left. That may have been an unlikely comeback for the Bears, but it wasn’t impossible.

The Cougars went through something similar last week in Boise. The Cougs led by as many as 24 points early in the second half. By the time the clock read 4:30, the Broncos had sliced that to seven.

WSU found ways to close out both wins. A healthy Coward would certainly have helped, but the Cougars won’t be getting that the rest of the season, which is why the scoring punches that Isaiah Watts and Erikstrup provided on Saturday loom so large. The Cougars might not have a player with Coward’s abilities, but they do have guys who have improved in meaningful ways.

They will likely need more of the same Wednesday to knock off the Huskies.

“I don’t know what it is … at the end of games.” Riley said. “Our defense has been atrocious the last 4 minutes of every single game, I think, except for one. That’s something we gotta fix. It’s not a thing that we’re incapable of. We’ve shown that we can guard. We’ve shown we can do it. We just gotta kind of tighten things up and finish games the right way.”