WSU uses second-half run to pull away from Pepperdine in 95-79 win, ending four-game slide

PULLMAN – A pall of nervous energy hung in the Beasley Coliseum air like a thick fog. It wasn’t just that Washington State was in a tight game, and it wasn’t even that this was against Pepperdine, one of the conference’s worst teams. It was also that on this Saturday afternoon, the Cougars were looking to end a four-game skid, the type that threatened to crater their season in coach David Riley’s second year.

“It was just like a pickup game,” Riley said. “I didn’t feel like any of the teams were guarding, and that’s an issue with our team right now. We have these stretches where we … start focusing on too many things, and we gotta dial it down and keep the main thing the main thing.”

Play by play, WSU began to emerge from the mist. In the second half, after their lead was whittled from 20 down to five, the Cougars got a lay-in from forward Emmanuel Ugbo. Then a triple from wing Ri Vavers. Then a string of three free throws, then another interior basket from Ugbo, and before anxiety returned to the arena, the hosts had regained control.

So with a 95-79 win over Pepperdine, WSU delivered the kind of victory it badly needed: not just its first triumph in nearly three weeks, but a dominant one, treating the Waves the way most teams in the West Coast Conference have this season. Six Cougars scored in double figures, including forward Simon Hildebrandt with a career-high 19 points and guard Ace Glass with 18, following his 29-point showing earlier in the week.

That helped the Cougars establish a huge lead in the first half, which extended to 29-9, and it helped them snap out of a mid-game drought. WSU used a 10-0 run to pull away when things got dicey, and with a 7-0 surge moments later, the hosts created the type of separation that turned the final seconds into a coronation for walk-on guard Dio Blakely.

Maybe that’s what the Cougs needed most of all: a win. In the final moments, sending the crowd into a frenzy, Blakely blocked a shot and knocked down a pair of free throws.

“It’s great,” said Ugbo, who scored 11 points to reach double figures for the first time since Dec. 17. “Dio is a great energy guy, always in a good mood. Even when you have a day that you don’t feel like really going, Dio is gonna make you want to go. So just to see him get his points, his rebound, the block, it’s just amazing.”

All told, Washington State shot an efficient 53% from the floor and connected on 16 of 37 shots from beyond the arc – a 43% figure. The Cougars also handed out 20 assists, which was their most all season, perhaps signaling they’re improving in one department where success has eluded them for much of the season.

Perhaps most importantly for the Cougs, they held an opponent under 80 points for the first time since Jan. 4. On their four-game losing skid – which included setbacks to conference juggernauts Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s, but also to more beatable teams such as San Francisco and San Diego – they had trouble on defense. They couldn’t guard the 3-point line, and they couldn’t complete stops with defensive rebounds, giving those clubs second and third opportunities to score.

While the Waves converted on 54% of their shots from the field, which might raise some eyebrows, they also lost 15 turnovers – which the Cougars parlayed into 14 points. WSU looked far better on the defensive end, a key development ahead of its home matchup against Seattle University on Wednesday, but Riley wasn’t entirely happy.

“In the second half, it wasn’t necessarily 3s that we weren’t contesting, but they were getting to some of those mid-ranges,” Riley said. “They’re really good players. They’re guys that can make those shots. And it’s not like the mid-range shot is a bad shot. It’s a bad shot when it’s contested and off-balance. So we were kinda struggling to force them to shoot some more of those contested, off-balance ones, and I thought just getting a high hand up and being a little more urgent was the biggest thing.”

The Cougs hope to utilize this momentum and get rolling. On Wednesday, they’ll get another crack at the Redhawks, who won the teams’ first clash in a 69-55 slugfest in late December.

In that one, WSU couldn’t generate anything resembling consistent offense, not even from Glass, who needed 13 shots to reach 13 points. But he’s been open about the adjustments he’s made to recover his scoring touch since that stretch, and his team has been better for it.