Washington State’s late run not enough in loss to Washington 81-69
PULLMAN – David Riley could have put a hole in the whiteboard. Squatted in the middle of the Washington State huddle, he used a blue dry-erase marker to diagram something – anything to help his Cougars claw out of a hole against rival Washington. A miscellaneous hip-hop mix bounced around Beasley Coliseum, which enjoyed a bigger crowd in anticipation of the next day’s football game.
When he was done on the whiteboard, Riley looked up and glared at his players, imploring them to turn things around. In this 81-69 loss to the Huskies on Friday night, the Cougars had some serious work to do. They couldn’t generate enough offense. They couldn’t produce enough stops on defense.
When Riley sent his guys back out there, trying to make up a deficit bordering on 20 early in the second half, they showed some promise. Freshman Ace Glass hit a triple to cut the Huskies’ lead to 13. Transfer Emmanuel Ugbo cashed in a deep catch to trim it to 11. Then transfer guard Jerone Morton got all the way to the rim for a layup to shave it to nine, sending a sleepy environment into a frenzy.
WSU’s best chance at a comeback, to rally from a deficit that swelled as wide as 22, came in the final five minutes. After all that unfolded, the Cougars forced a wild miss, and Glass ripped down the rebound and streaked the other way. Then, looking to make a post entry pass, he threw it away.
That all but zapped the momentum from WSU (1-3), which never drew closer than eight. Yalaho led the team with 15 points and Glass followed with 12 for the Cougs, who also got 11 points and seven rebounds from Ugbo. But with another wayward outing from beyond the arc, connecting on just 9 of 31 from 3-point range, the hosts couldn’t make enough shots to keep them in the game earlier on.
Perhaps a more pressing issue, the type that the Cougars have now shown in three of their first four games: They can’t come up with stops. USC transfer Wesley Yates posted 26 points and second-year guard Zoom Diallo followed with 20 for the Huskies, who hit nine triples on the game. Several were backbreakers for WSU, which surrendered late-clock treys to Yates, including one right before halftime. That capped an 8-2 UW run, sending the visitors to halftime up 14.
The Cougars won the second half, 39-37. But, as has been the case in all three of their losses this season, they haven’t found ways to produce the same way in the first. In these three setbacks, including ones to Idaho and Davidson, WSU has won the second halves by a total margin of nine. The Cougs have looked energized and intense in the final 20 minutes.
But they haven’t looked the same in the first half. WSU connected on just 4 of 19 triples, prolonging the shooting woes that have plagued them for much of the season. Junior wing Ri Vavers, who missed the team’s season-opener recovering from an offseason shoulder procedure, continues to look off with his shot. He has hit just 1 of his first 11 tries from beyond the arc this season.
Early in the second half, WSU lost guard Tomas Thrastarson to what looked like a bad ankle roll. On a loose ball around the basket, Thrastarson got tangled up with another player, and he went down in real pain. After getting helped off the court by a trainer, hobbling as he went, he spent a few moments in a curtained-off injury area.
Thrastarson emerged from that area. He did not reenter the game.
Then, only a few minutes later, Vavers sustained his own injury. Going for a rebound, he bumped knees with Yalaho, sending him to the ground. He limped over to the same injury area, never to return to action.
WSU next hosts Southern Utah on Wednesday.