WSU parries late Oregon State run to earn 81-67 win, Cougars’ fifth in last six games

The slyest grin of all time crossed the face of Jerone Morton, the Washington State guard who knew what he had just gotten away with. As he jogged backward on defense, right after he bailed out his team with a fadeaway jumper to beat the shot clock in Sunday’s game against Oregon State, he pointed at coach David Riley, who didn’t just smile back.

Dressed in a crimson quarter-zip, Riley also pointed back at Morton, who has begun to leave his footprint on the Cougars’ operation. Earlier in the weekend, he tallied a career-high in scoring. He’s always been one of the team’s best on-ball defenders. And in WSU’s 81-67 win over Oregon State in Spokane, good for the Cougs’ fifth win in six tries, he showed what his team can look like when he puts both on display.

“I just thought it was a good moment in the game to give him some energy,” Morton said. “He just gave it to me back. So I just thank the Lord for letting me make that shot.”

It was largely a blowout win for WSU, which got four double-digit scorers, led by freshman guard Ace Glass with 16 points. Morton delivered 13 points, as did forward ND Okafor, and fellow forward Eemeli Yalaho added 11 points and six rebounds. That helped the Cougars pile up 47 points in the first half, cruising for most of the rest of the way.

WSU (8-9, 3-1 WCC) enjoyed one of its best starts of the season, racing to a 9-0 lead, then a 14-4 advantage. It was a step in the right direction for the Cougars, who have often found themselves on the other end of runs like that, staring up from a giant hole before the game has really started. In that stretch, Morton and Yalaho each cashed 3-pointers, and the Cougs got two layups from Okafor and one from Yalaho.

The Beavers rallied, using an 8-0 surge to draw back within five, but they really tested the Cougars in the second half. Up by as many as 21, WSU saw its lead whittled to 11 with nine minutes to go, then 10 with about four to play. The Beavers rattled home back-to-back treys. Then they parlayed a turnover, one of four committed by Glass, into an easy basket in transition.

How would Riley’s group respond? At the beginning of the season, the Cougars faced similar situations, only to let opponents seize control of the game. The group harbored many strengths. Mental fortitude did not look like one of them. That bit WSU on several occasions.

Ahead of a grueling stretch for the Cougars, whose next three games are against Saint Mary’s, No. 7 Gonzaga and San Francisco, they’re turning that around. Riley credits his team’s nonconference slate, which included road games at USC, Davidson and Bradley. The Maui Invitational. A home game against rival Washington. The Cougs didn’t exactly come out on top in those matchups – in fact, they went 1-6 in those games – but they did emerge with experience, with composure, with an understanding of how to steel themselves when things begin to slip away.

So in Sunday’s second half, when the Beavers trimmed the Cougars’ lead to 11, the hosts answered with a 3-pointer from Yalaho. Moments later, after OSU shaved it to 10, wing Emmanuel Ugbo got to the free -throw line for two points. The Beavs never got closer than that.

“We just had to find ways to play with force and momentum,” Riley said. “Our guys are starting to learn what that looks like. You can talk about Xs and Os all you want in a timeout. That’s great. But if someone can go get an offensive rebound or deflection, make an extra pass, dive on the floor, that’s how you get the momentum back in the game.”

Another way is this: get a sparkling game from guard Adria Rodriguez, who supplied seven points and seven rebounds. He had been going through it in recent games, especially at the free -throw line, where he entered Sunday’s game shooting an unsightly 32%. He’s a staunch defender, a reliable organizer on offense, but he wasn’t providing much in the scoring department. If that retained the case, could he stay on the floor?

Maybe Rodriguez won’t raise many eyebrows with a seven-point outing, but consider this: He went 3-for-3 at the free -throw line. He scored his other four points in similar ways, nabbing a steal and racing the other way for layups. On one, he went up with the ball, brought it down to avoid a shot-blocker, then laid it up for two – a layup so sweet that after the game, Morton had to needle his teammate: “He do got a little jelly in his game,” Morton laughed. “He’s just trying to be humble.”

“I just read the defense,” Rodriguez said. “He was jumping in the air, I was jumping. I said, OK, I’m gonna finish like that.”

“We talk a lot with him about playing off two and playing on balance and making his reads,” Riley added. “He did a great job with that. When he plays off one, he better go dunk it. Better go up with power. And he tried to go do that in the first half. I want him to get his creativity back. I’m not even mad at his turnover he had behind his back. I want that once a game from him. He’s a playmaker for us, and I just thought he played way more under control tonight.”

Thrastarson to miss about a month with injury

WSU guard Tomas Thrastarson is expected to miss “at least” four weeks with a stress fracture in his foot, Riley said after Sunday’s game. It’s a brutal blow for the Cougars, who will have to play without Thrastarson’s two-way acumen. Before going down with the injury on Tuesday against Seattle U, he had started 13 of his 14 games.

Thrastarson averages nearly 10 points per game, and he’s one of the team’s best defenders, particularly on the perimeter, where he can use his 6-foot-6 size.

WSU guard Kase Wynott is also dealing with a hip injury, Riley said, and it’s unclear when he could return.

“He’s gonna need to use his voice, which he doesn’t talk much,” Riley said of Thrastarson. “Maybe he’ll figure out how to be a little louder and more vocal, but we’re gonna need his voice out there, and everyone’s gonna have to step up. I think the last two games are good examples of that.”