WSU hangs with first-place Saint Mary’s, but lets double-digit lead slip in 80-75 loss

PULLMAN – In his fourth year as a head coach, Washington State coach David Riley may not have the resume of others in the West Coast Conference, which is why he hits the film room.

He watches the way the best have become the best, the schemes they deploy, the adjustments they make, the intangibles they instill in their players that come to light when it matters most.

He’s studied Gonzaga’s Mark Few, Santa Clara’s Herb Sendek, even Pacific’s Dave Smart, who had an illustrious career in Canada at his last stop. When he gets a moment to reflect, Riley thinks about the days he spent looking up to those guys, thinking about the opportunity he now has to match wits with them.

But as he’s discovering on the fly, guiding WSU through its first year of WCC affiliate membership, Riley doesn’t always have the answers other coaches in this conference do. Saint Mary’s coach Randy Bennett gave him a strong reminder Saturday night, handing the Cougars an 80-75 loss at Beasley Coliseum, where the first-place Gaels made key plays in crunch time that the hosts couldn’t match.

It’s the fourth setback in six games for the Cougars (15-7, 5-4 WCC), who are watching their NCAA Tournament at-large chances vanish with each loss. Up as many as 10 points, WSU let Saint Mary’s deliver a key 20-5 run in the second half, putting the Gaels in position to put the game away in the final moments.

“I thought that’s where they won the game. It was just mental fortitude down the stretch,” Riley said of Saint Mary’s, which has won eight straight, including 14 consecutive road contests. “We can do that midseason. I think looking in the mirror and watching film is the key.”

WSU, which got a team-best 20 points from forward Ethan Price, found itself in position to win when sophomore wing LeJuan Watts threw down a left-handed dunk with about 15 minutes to go, good for a double-digit lead. But that’s when Saint Mary’s kicked off the run that swung the game, a 20-5 push that handed the Gaels a 59-54 lead with a shade over eight minutes left.

Thanks to that surge, the Cougars were playing from behind in the final minutes. Price hit two 3-pointers in the last two minutes, including one that trimmed SMC’s lead to 72-70. But on the other end, the Gaels took advantage of the Cougars’ switch-everything scheme and got big man Mitchell Saxen matched up against guard Nate Calmese, leading to an easy layup.

On the next sequence, after Price knocked down another 3-pointer to pull back within one, the Gaels got another basket from Saxen, this time on a pick-and-roll that resulted in Calmese defending Saxen at the rim. Price couldn’t answer on the Cougars’ next possession, forcing them to foul to stop the clock.

In the end, Riley and the Cougars were frustrated with the defeat, another missed Quad 1 opportunity. Riley took care to mention his team is not interested in moral victories. But the Cougars also seemed to recognize that Saint Mary’s is in first place for a reason.

“They’re just disciplined,” said Calmese, who scored six of his 16 points in the second half. “They’ve got a really good coach. They just do what they do to a T. They use the whole 30 seconds, and then they offensive rebound really well. It’s tiring to guard a team for 30 seconds and then have to box them out. Those are back-breaking plays, and they had a couple of those tonight.”

“There’s times, including today, where I just feel like I let these guys down,” Riley said. “If I had made a couple more adjustments, and maybe if we hadn’t switched down the stretch and we didn’t have Nate on Saxton down there, they don’t get the offensive rebound. I don’t know. You’re learning a lot, and the best way to grow is when you’re going against really good people.”

As much respect as the Cougars have for the Gaels, though, they made their fair share of mistakes. With a tick less than five minutes to play, clinging to a one-point lead, SMC ran an out-of-bounds play that began with a pass to Saxon on the baseline. Saxen set a screen on Calmese as he handed the ball back to guard Augustas Marciulionis, who sprung wide open on the wing.

With neither Calmese nor Dane Erikstrup on him, Marciulionis had no problem hitting the 3-pointer, part of his 17-point outing. To Riley, it was the same kind of mental mistake that has plagued the Cougars all season.

“I’m pretty sure we were supposed to switch that,” Riley said. “We had switched up the coverages but just the lack of talk. I can’t remember what had just happened.

“Most of the time when we make mistakes, it’s because we’re thinking about the previous play, or we’re not staying in the moment. So we gotta look at that. That was a big shot. We can’t have those breakdowns against a good team like this.”

As WSU moves forward, facing a two-game road stretch against Pacific and San Francisco next week, the Cougs will try to take what they can from this loss. Maybe at the top of the list is improving the mental game.

Riley has brought that up on several occasions this season, often unprompted. His players can get in their heads, he said, both positively and negatively. When things are going well for the Cougars, they’re keep progressing, and when things are going south, they tend to snowball.

WSU is out of contention for an NCAA Tournament at-large spot, but there are more games to play, more opportunities for Riley to impart on his players what the coaches he respects most do with theirs – a mental edge that stands the test of circumstance.

“I think you just gotta watch the film, you gotta do the work,” Riley said. “You gotta put the time in, you gotta practice. There’s no secrets to it. You see Saint Mary’s – they’re one of the most disciplined and toughest teams in the country.

“I don’t know those guys that well, but I’ve known some guys that have played there. I had a transfer early in my career who played there. Just hearing about their preseason stuff, where they build mental toughness, it’s pretty clear, and the way they coach and the way they do things, it’s built toward that.”