Washington State gives up WCC record 23 3-pointers in 109-79 loss to Santa Clara
PULLMAN – After a lopsided loss earlier this week, Washington State coach David Riley considered all manner of factors that could remedy the issues that plagued his team.
The Cougars needed to improve on the rebounding front, Riley figured. They needed to shore up their turnover issues, play better defense and avoid letting small issues snowball into bigger ones.
Three days later, all of that went for naught in WSU’s 109-79 West Coast Conference loss to Santa Clara, which rode a white-hot first half to the win, cruising to a blowout win over the Cougars, who have lost three straight games and eight of their past nine. The Broncos connected on a program-record 23 3-pointers, including a sizzling 15-for-19 showing in the first half, burying the Cougs under a 30-6 run.
Santa Clara’s 23 3-pointers tied for the most in a road win in Division I history. The points were also the most the Cougars have allowed in regulation since a 2002 loss to Oregon, as well as the first time WSU has let an opponent hit the century mark since 2018, when former Arizona forward DeAndre Ayton led the Wildcats to a 100-72 win.
“That was one of the best offensive first halves I’ve ever seen in my life from Santa Clara,” Riley said. “They shot 15 for 19 from 3, 79%. Most people couldn’t do that with no defense. … That’s a heck of a barrage from 3. We got unlucky with eight or nine of them, but we gotta control our controllables a little bit better.”
No WSU players spoke to the media after the game, a first this season.
Santa Clara cooled off a bit in the second half – hitting on 8 of 19 in that stretch – but by then it was too late for WSU.
The Cougars got a team-best 20 points from guard Nate Calmese. Forward Ethan Price scored 19 points, and Dane Erikstrup added 15, but the problem wasn’t offense .
The issues came on defense, where WSU (16-13, 6-10) couldn’t stop four Broncos from hitting at least four 3-pointers each for a total of 23 of 38 (61%). Guard Carlos Stewart scored 22 points on four 3-pointers; forward Jake O’Neil posted 17 points on five; wing Elijah Mahi scored 19 on four; and guard Tyeree Bryan scored 12 on four. The Broncos hit 11 of their first 12 3-point tries.
The Broncos did hit some tougher shots, including a step-back from Mahi over WSU forward ND Okafor and several other contested looks, but the Cougars also gave up their fair share of open shots. WSU couldn’t slow the momentum, and Santa Clara had few issues dicing up a porous Cougars defense, switching between zone and man matchups.
“We mixed in some zone early on,” Riley said. “With the way that they really kinda drive and kick, they do a great job putting you in rotations. So we wanted to mix things up. We wanted to mix our ball screen coverages up and get them uncomfortable. And that clearly did not work.”
It might have been an extreme example – the Broncos’ 30-6 run, which helped them turn a 12-8 lead into 41-14 , covered nearly eight minutes – but it added up to another disastrous stretch for the Cougars, who have made a habit of giving up similar backbreaking runs. They did so against Gonzaga, which took control with an early 24-5 run, and they did so last weekend against Saint Mary’s, which opened the second half on a 16-2 surge.
That trend has stuck around all year for the Cougs. Riley has spoken about mental toughness on multiple occasions. He said that’s partially to blame for some of his group’s mistakes, from turnovers – WSU had 13, which Santa Clara turned into 17 points – to allowing game-changing runs.
At times, the Cougars have shown the toughness, keeping a Feb. 6 road loss to Oregon State close the whole way, but they haven’t displayed it on a consistent basis.
“We’ve probably skipped some steps foundation-wise,” Riley said, “whether it was in the summer or the fall. We’re trying to put in all this stuff in that, skipping those steps might have kind of bit us in the butt down the stretch. There’s a ton of stuff that I’ll write down, and we’ll write down, the staff, that we can talk about here in a month. But right now, we’re right in the middle of it, and we have so much to fight for.”
That might include a sixth-place finish in the WCC standings, which would give WSU a bye to the conference tournament third round. It might include giving players who might field lucrative name, image and likeness offers in the offseason – such as LeJuan Watts, Isaiah Watts and Calmese – a reason to stay in Pullman.
The Cougars’ next home game is also their last of the season, a Senior Night sendoff to Price and Erikstrup, who have played their entire careers for Riley. Price was Riley’s first recruit. It’s clear they mean something special to Riley, who started his head coaching career at Eastern Washington in 2021.
“We have a good team. We have a team that can be dynamic,” Riley said. “I’ve seen just last year in the Big Sky, a team that wasn’t even .500 go win the conference tournament and go play in the NCAA Tournament. That’s what our mindset needs to be. We need to fight for this season. We need to fight for each other.”