‘We should be right there with them’: How Washington State let a close first half slip away against No. 18 Gonzaga

Nate Calmese’s curls hung on the sides of his face as he stared blankly at the table in front of him, thinking about his Washington State group’s 88-75 road setback to No. 18 Gonzaga, and what went wrong for his Cougars on Saturday evening.
WSU couldn’t shake the turnover bug, losing 16 on the night, four from Calmese. The Cougs yielded a back-breaking 13-0 surge in the final moments of the first half and the opening few of the second. They lost shooters, gave up too many offensive rebounds and listened to The Kennel soundtrack the Zags’ win in this rivalry’s first game in a decade with ear-splitting roars.
Calmese’s mind wandered to the first half, when the Cougars took a lead as big as six, taking control with 10 straight points. To Calmese, who scored a game-high 20 points, that stretch – which included all seven of forward ND Okafor’s points, a basket by wing LeJuan Watts and Calmese’s 1-for-2 free-throw showing – proved something about his club.
“If we play the way we’re supposed to play,” Calmese said, “we should be right there with them.”
It’s something of a complicated scenario for the Cougs, who have lost two straight, continuing to operate with four key injured players. Calmese might be right – the Cougs might be able to hang with the Zags. In large part, they did so in the first half, playing through 12 turnovers to take multiple leads and hit key 3-pointers.
But to make the most of this season, to take full advantage of the few Quad 1 opportunities on the remaining regular-season slate, WSU (13-5, 3-2 WCC) would do well to learn from what went awry in the second half.
The Cougars took better care of the ball, committing only four turnovers in the final 20 minutes, but their defense slipped. They let one basket turn into two, two to turn into three, until they looked up and they were down 20, Gonzaga students serenading players as pop music blared over the speakers.
“That was our thing,” WSU coach David Riley said. “When things get tough, or they throw in a 25-second possession, we gotta execute all 30 seconds of the shot clock. I think it was more just coverage stuff. We didn’t have that many space cadet errors. I think it was more just kind of one guy doing something that wasn’t exactly right in the coverage.”
The Cougars have about a month to learn from the loss until they get a second crack at the Zags, a Feb. 19 home matchup in Pullman. As of Saturday, that represents one of the two remaining Quad 1 games on WSU’s slate. The other is a road test against Santa Clara on Jan. 23.

That didn’t always have to matter so much to WSU. Then the Cougars dropped a Quad 4 game to Pacific on Thursday, putting their NCAA Tournament at-large bid hopes in peril, so much so that they can ill afford many more losses – at least not at the Quad 3 or 4 level – and they almost need to take down Santa Clara and Gonzaga in those Quad 1 opportunities to give themselves a chance.
But WSU has yet to take on Santa Clara this season. The Cougars have seen the Bulldogs. They’ve seen the firepower they have, bringing off their bench versatile big man Braden Huff, wing Michael Ajayi and rangy guard Dusty Stromer, complementing those guys with a starting five that ranks among the country’s best.
The Cougs may not have lineups of that caliber, but they will likely get guard Isaiah Watts back from injury in time for that Feb. 19 clash, which might be the biggest development of all for WSU. But even with Watts back in the fold, the Cougars can do plenty more to put themselves in position to earn a victory.
It might start with taking better care of the ball, a problem that has followed WSU around like a raincloud all year. In the first half, the Cougs traveled twice trying to attack closeouts. Sometimes they sailed entry passes out of bounds. Other times they just lost the handle on a drive, which is what happened to wing LeJuan Watts, who totaled 17 points in Saturday’s game.
If WSU can clean those up — a particularly big if — it’ll be in better position. The Cougs can also keep better track of shooters, which is a key reason the Zags pulled away, connecting on 4 of 5 treys to end the first half. On one, Calmese was in no man’s land, giving GU guard Nolan Hickman a wide-open look at a 3. It was uncharacteristic of WSU, which has excelled all year at guarding the 3, entering the week allowing opponents to shoot just 24.2% in the last month, No. 23 nationally.
WSU would also do well to keep Gonzaga off the offensive glass, where the Bulldogs parlayed 11 offensive rebounds into 19 second-chance points. Ben Gregg snared five offensive rebounds and Graham Ike grabbed three. They might be hulking forwards, but WSU has plenty of length to counter, which could serve the Cougs well next month in Pullman.
If they want to earn a second straight trip to the NCAA Tournament, the Cougars don’t have much choice but to win that game. If nothing else, the first loss to Gonzaga might provide them the blueprint.
“This just adds fuel to the fire,” Calmese said. “This is a top-18 team in the country, and we were right there with them at half, even though we didn’t play our best game. So I think we just gotta not take this so negatively. Just go and watch the film, like I said, and just grow from it and just know that we could be right there with one of the top 18 teams in the country when we play the right way.”