WSU can’t keep pace with Saint Mary’s in second half, falling in 83-67 loss

PULLMAN – At the moment when David Riley decided to yank Ace Glass, Washington State’s star freshman guard capable of scoring in ways that only visit this campus once in a blue moon, their team was still in a good spot. The Cougars were fighting an uphill battle against Saint Mary’s, one of the titans of the West Coast Conference, and they trailed by only one. Midway through the second half, the hosts were squarely in the fight for Riley’s first signature win of the season.

A shade over two minutes of game time later, when Glass reentered the game, the Cougars weren’t only down nine. They also couldn’t get stops. Couldn’t engineer quality offensive trips. If they were driving a Corvette in the first half, they downgraded to a Model T in the second.

Much more went into WSU’s 83-67 loss to Saint Mary’s on Saturday night, the Cougs’ fourth loss in five games, including the way their 3-point shooting dried up and the way their defense had no answers for the Gaels’ trio of Joshua Dent, Mikey Lewis and Paulius Murauskas – all of whom scored in double figures, burning the Cougars in just about whichever way they liked.

Still, it’s true that the Gaels took control of the game when Glass subbed out, after he forayed into the paint and finished an and-one layup. When that happened, WSU’s offensive trips turned clunky. Forward ND Okafor, who totaled 15 points, couldn’t finish over Saint Mary’s towering duo of 7-foot-1 Harry Wessels and 7-foot-3 Andrew McKeever. Wing Ri Vavers couldn’t spring open for triples the way he did in the first half. Neither could forward Eemeli Yalaho, who sunk two treys in the first period.

With Glass on the bench, Saint Mary’s had one fewer ball-handler to worry about, forcing WSU into a series of inelegant offensive looks. And on the other end, the visitors engineered just about the opposite: Murauskas tallied 12 of his 17 points in the second half, Lewis poured in 12 of his 16 points in the second, which was too much for the Cougars to overcome. Down only one at halftime, they shot only 33% from the field in the second half.

One theme that surfaced in the second half: WSU’s 3-point opportunities dried up in a big way. It was one thing for the Cougars to fail to make a single triple in the second half. It was entirely another for them to attempt only seven in the second half. That paled in comparison to the 12 WSU generated in the first half, knocking down seven of those.

With this loss on senior night, honoring forward Simon Hildebrandt and guard Adria Rodriguez, WSU drops to 12-17 overall and 7-9 in WCC play. That puts the Cougars in sixth place in the conference standings. If the conference tournament started tomorrow – in reality, it begins March 5 in Las Vegas – they would get a bye into the third round, which starts on March 7.

Washington State is set to complete its regular-season slate with two more games, both on the road: Wednesday against LMU and next Saturday against Pepperdine, which is the conference’s worst team.