WSU suffers first loss of season with 76-66 setback to Iowa in neutral-site game in Illinois

Sometime later this season, David Riley figures, his Washington State team will appreciate the result.

The Cougars will be better for taking a 76-66 loss to Iowa on Friday evening in a neutral-site game in Illinois, especially once conference play kicks off.

But to make sure that happens, WSU will need to improve. The categories are obvious: In the loss, the Cougars’ first of the season in their fourth game, they connected on just 5 of 28 3-pointers. They lost 18 turnovers, which the Hawkeyes (4-0) turned into 20 points. And their bench managed just eight points, leaving almost all the work to their starters.

The Cougars got a game-high 27 points from guard Nate Calmese, his most since playing at Lamar two seasons ago, and wing LeJuan Watts added 11 points and 10 rebounds. But Calmese’s last field goal came with a shade less than 12 minutes to play, leaving the Cougars without a key source of offense in the final moments.

WSU took a 36-33 lead into halftime, but the advantage unraveled late in the second half, when Iowa used an 8-0 run to take the lead for good.

“I think it’s a big lesson for us,” said Riley, WSU’s first-year coach, on the Cougars’ postgame radio show. “We’re going to have a lot of these games, and we’re going to go win a game that’s just like this in the (final) 3 minutes, because we went through this. So the big thing is it’s November. We have a fully new team. It was our first time as a group having to execute late game, and we learned the importance of really just sticking to the game plan and not getting lost in the last play, or whatever is happening in the moment.”

In a game with 16 lead changes and nine ties, WSU (3-1) still had its chances. With about 4 minutes to play, senior wing Cedric Coward knocked down a 3-pointer from the left side, snapping a long drought for the Cougars. On their next trip, center Ethan Price let a defender fly by and hit another 3-pointer, injecting a surge of energy into WSU’s offense, which was scuffling at that point.

The problem for the Cougars was their defense eluded them in the plays in between. After Coward’s 3-pointer, Iowa guard Drew Thelwell responded with a 3-pointer. After Price hit his 3-pointer, Thelwell answered right back again. That bucket kicked off an 8-0 spurt by the Hawkeyes, who closed the game on a 16-4 run, igniting the crowd in Moline, Illinois, a one-hour drive from Iowa’s campus in Iowa City.

The bigger problem for WSU was its shot-making beforehand, or lack thereof. For the Cougars on 3-point attempts, Coward went 1 for 6, Price 1 for 3, Watts 1 for 3, Calmese 1 for 5, Dane Erikstrup 1 for 4 and sophomore guard Isaiah Watts 0 for 6, perhaps the most uncharacteristic of all.

“Isaiah Watts is one of the best shooters I’ve ever coached,” Riley said. “I was in the gym with him last night. He was knocking down everything.

“That’s not going to happen too often. And you look at our bigs, Ethan and Dane only hitting a couple. I think there’s just a lot that we can just – simple fixes and a couple deep breaths will take care of it.”

Erikstrup, one of the team’s best perimeter shooters, was thrown off by foul trouble most of the night. He picked up this fourth foul less than a minute into the second half, prompting Riley to sit him, and Erikstrup fouled out with a tick over 2 minutes to play. Price, who totaled eight points, also fouled out in the closing minute.

WSU, which returns to action Monday evening to host Northern Colorado, might also have more injury issues to sort out. On top of the absence of transfer wing Rihards Vavers, who has missed the past three games with a wrist injury he suffered in the team’s Nov. 5 season opener, true freshman guard Marcus Wilson exited Friday’s game early and returned in street clothes, according to the radio broadcast. Wilson subbed out midway through the first half and did not return, nursing some type of apparent injury.

The good news for the Cougars is that fellow freshman Kase Wynott made his season debut, returning from an injury.

He didn’t make much of an impact, scoring two points in 7 minutes, but his return was promising for WSU.

The Cougars can keep things trending upward by fixing the issues that led to the loss to Iowa.