Foul trouble haunts WSU in 84-72 loss to Oregon State, Cougars’ fifth straight loss

PULLMAN — With his group on a four-game skid, Washington State coach David Riley wanted to see the Cougars clean several things up this week.

Headed into Thursday’s road test against Oregon State, WSU needed to shore up its turnover issues, which have been prevalent all season. The Cougs also needed to avoid foul trouble, which has often taken their best players out of action at critical junctures.

Washington State did well to improve on the first front, but not so much on the second, leading to an 82-74 loss to Oregon State. The Cougars ended the game with five players in foul trouble, including forward Dane Erikstrup, who fouled out with eight points at around the 9-minute mark, his 10th time fouling out this season.

“These last few weeks, we haven’t had the most success, and a lot of that’s been due to us turning the ball over, us not rebounding, and us fouling too much,” Riley said in a postgame radio interview, “and we did a good job in one of those areas. I thought we had a good week of practice and got better with that. We really bad job in the rebounding and the fouling. We fouled too much.”

In the double bonus with more than 11 minutes to play, the Beavers racked up 38 free throws, making 30, including several to put the game away in the final moments. They benefited from 29 fouls on WSU, a difference of 14 for OSU, which was tagged for 15.

It might have been a lot of free throws for OSU, but it was only an extension of another problem that has followed WSU around all year. The Cougars are committing 19.1 fouls per game, which ranks No. 329 of 355 Division-I teams. That’s giving their opponents lots of chances to get to the line, and the Beavers took full advantage, hitting 20 of 25 free throws in the second half.

Three Beavs scored in double figures: Rataj with 21 points, forward Parsa Fallah with 17 and wing Nate Kingz with 15.

Still, it came down to the wire for the now seventh-place Cougs (15-10, 5-7 WCC), who have now lost five straight games, the program’s longest losing streak in three seasons. Guard Nate Calmese took over with a team-best 25 points, including 10 in the second half to hit the 1,000 career point mark, but it wasn’t enough to push the visitors across the finish line.

“I thought that he was steady, and steady for him means he’s still gotta be aggressive and give us a huge pop,” Riley said of Calmese, who played only 20 minutes because he was sick last weekend against USF. “I just thought his consistency this game was the best I’ve seen it. He was dynamic in the ball screens. He was setting everything up. He was playing patient. When he plays like that, we’re really hard to guard.”

Down as many as eight, Washington State put together a key six-point surge late in the second half to draw within 73-72 with only four minutes to play. But on the other end, OSU forward Michael Rataj converted an and-one layup, and after Calmese knocked down two free throws, Rataj followed with a fadeaway jumper to secure another four-point lead, this time with two minutes left.

The Cougars had a chance to creep within one inside of a minute to play, but guard Isaiah Watts was off on a straightaway triple, forcing the visitors to foul and stop the clock the rest of the way. It was a fruitless effort for WSU, which was nearly doubled up in the rebounding battle, 36-19, including an 11-7 deficit on the offensive glass. The Beavers turned those into 14 second-chance points, another area that has haunted the Cougars.

“That’s a big part of the game, is being able to defend without fouling,” Riley said. “And I do know that we had some undisciplined plays where we were late in our help, and we fouled them. We gotta control what we can control. We gotta watch the film and see what we gotta get better at.”

WSU did well to avoid turnovers, committing only five on the game, by far its fewest all season. The Cougs lost only one in the second half, which is a marked improvement from recent outings: 18 against San Francisco, 15 against Pacific, 12 against Saint Mary’s, 17 against Santa Clara.

After a loss to USF over the weekend, Riley and Calmese vowed to take better care of the ball, which the Cougs have seldom been able to do all year. They found a way on Thursday, but it wasn’t enough for WSU, which returns to action on Saturday to host Pepperdine.

“We had a good week of practice. We got better,” Riley said. “But the reality is, we didn’t get in this situation in one week, and we aren’t gonna get out of it one week. And we took a step. We need to come in and watch film tomorrow. We gotta get better. We gotta take another step, and we gotta go win on Saturday.”