WSU uses late surge to top Portland, 67-62, hanging on despite shaky closing effort

PORTLAND, Ore. – In his second season at the helm of Washington State’s basketball program, David Riley has earned all manner of criticisms.

At times, his teams have turned it over too much. At others, they haven’t guarded well enough. At others still, they’ve looked like the worst versions of themselves when they combine the two bad habits, becoming a wholly undisciplined club that can’t get out of its own way.

But whatever you say about Riley, with a 67-62 road win over Portland here on Sunday afternoon to open WCC play, he proved this: You can’t call his teams boring.

“I think it just kinda speaks to the guys and what they’ve been through this fall and this early winter,” Riley said. “We’ve had a really tough schedule, played some really good teams and got exposed in a lot of ways. Those practices, those film sessions, we grew a lot, and it’s time for us to start turning that corner. I think that’s been a big part of what we just did.”

In the Cougars’ third straight victory, turning around what was a miserable start to the season, the visitors used a late 9-0 run to take control for good. Junior wing Ri Vavers tallied a team-best 13 points and guards Tomas Thrastarson and Ace Glass added 11 apiece for WSU, which found itself down eight with about 10 minutes to play.

Around that time, the Cougs (6-8, 1-0 WCC) were slogging through a listless offense, allowing the Pilots (7-7, 0-1) to seize control of the game. Freshman guard Joel Foxwell tallied 15 points, including one fallaway triple that looked more like a gymnastics achievement than a basketball play. As WSU let a 32-23 halftime lead slip, Portland looked like the more energized team, using a 3-pointer from 7-foot-1 big man Jermaine Ballisager Webb to push its lead to eight.

In Riley’s view, the Pilots were grabbing too many offensive rebounds, turning 14 of those into 20 second-chance points. Plus, the Cougars were missing shots they can usually count on sinking. Glass, a freshman, scored nine points on 10 free throws and went just 1-for-8 from the field. And even Vavers misfired on a couple treys that usually go down for him.

The Cougars, who return to action Tuesday to square off with Seattle U at Climate Pledge Arena, can’t let that happen. Riley made no bones about that. But he also acknowledged this: In games earlier this year, if these Cougs met that fate, they might have wilted. “I think our defense would have dwindled,” Riley said.

“We would have gotten frustrated,” Riley added, “and we wouldn’t have stayed focused. That’s where you get hardened from that schedule and really understand what it takes to lock in when the ball is not going through the hoop. And we won this game with defense. Just excited to see us start turning that corner defensively.”

The game swung on a wing 3-pointer from Vavers, who is now shooting a shade under 40% from beyond the arc, an elite mark. He found himself open from that spot, let it fly and put it through, handing the Cougars a 47-45 lead. On their next trip down, the Cougars got a layup from Thrastarson, capping a 12-0 WSU run.

Except the visitors weren’t done. After the Pilots drew back within three with a pair of free throws, the Cougs followed with a 9-0 run. In that stretch, Vavers hit another trey, which is his best attribute. But he also attacked a closeout and got all the way to the rim for a layup, making one thing clear: Now that he’s been injury-free for a long stretch, he’s gotten much stronger, and he’s gotten much more comfortable.

The Cougs are reaping the benefits. A year ago, Vavers battled injuries nearly all season, including ones to both his hands. He couldn’t shoot, couldn’t lift, couldn’t do much of anything with a basketball. So even as he rejoined the lineup later in the season, he didn’t always look comfortable, didn’t look like the sharpshooter he was billed as.

This winter, Vavers is starting to look like that player, and far more. The funny part is that in Sunday’s game, he didn’t get going on offense until after he took a stray ball to the face. Maybe that jumpstarted some offensive rhythm he hadn’t unlocked yet.

“He’s finally getting comfortable,” Riley said. “When you get hurt like he did, it’s a little tough going in. It’s not like you’re going and playing against some small dudes. These are big-time athletes that are gonna hit you, and it just takes a second to get used to that physicality. And I think he’s turned the corner. I swear he’s gotten hit in the nose in both of these last two second halves, and that’s when he started making those 3s. So we might have to get one of his teammates to knock him around before the game.”

Riley chuckled when he said that last part, but he’s far more concerned about the way his group closed this one out. Up 12 with under two minutes to play, WSU permitted a personal 7-0 run to Portland guard Mikah Ballew, who knocked down a 3-pointer, then converted a four-point play thanks to a shooting foul on Thrastarson. Moments later, WSU wing Emmanuel Ugbo fouled Ballew, who went back to the free throw line to convert all three foul shots.

That helped the Pilots claw within five with under a minute to play. They drew within four moments later on another 3-pointer from Ballew. The Cougs never let the hosts get closer. They’ll take solace in that, but they also know that kind of closing effort won’t always fly.

“We learned a lot of lessons through losing,” Riley said. “We haven’t learned those lessons through winning. Some silly, stupid fouls that we can’t have. We had a careless turnover with about two minutes to go. We talk about it. We have practices where we scrimmage, and every time we scrimmage late game, we bring the group together, we talk about what went well, what went wrong. But there’s a difference when the lights are on. I always think we gotta figure it out in practice. It just takes another game to figure it out, I guess.”