Ri Vavers continues torrid stretch, catching fire to lift WSU to 70-58 win over Seattle U

PULLMAN – ND Okafor does not exactly have the prettiest form on his jump shot. He doesn’t really need to, not as Washington State’s starting center, not when he’s making mincemeat of defenders around the basket and showing off an improved sense of touch from short range.

Okafor scores nearly all his points from within five feet of the rim. It’s smart for Okafor, who rarely looks to score from further out. But when he does, like in the second half of WSU’s 70-58 home win over Seattle U on Wednesday evening, it makes for a fascinating scene.

With about seven minutes to go, the Cougars up eight, Okafor caught the ball at the elbow. The shot clock was winding down, and his team didn’t have much of a rhythm on this possession. So Okafor rose up, fading away slightly, his body angling sideways to contort himself away from his defender.

The ball hit the back rim and swished through. It wasn’t just a rarity for Okafor. It also helped the Cougars complete what turned into an 11-0 run, putting the finishing touches on their second straight win, an important development for a WSU team whose season was on the brink of cratering completely at this time last week.

“I’m not gonna be cocky and say it’s a consistent shot,” Okafor said, “but I shoot the ball when I have to shoot the ball. Made it today.”

“Really proud of this team for taking a step over the last month,” said WSU coach David Riley, whose team also got 14 points from freshman guard Ace Glass. “You look at the way we played Dec. 30 to where we’re at now, I think we showed a lot more composure. We definitely took a step in the right direction defensively from this game compared to the Pepperdine game. I think just the poise and composure we showed is taking a step, and if we can do that over the next month, we’ll be in a pretty dang good spot down the stretch.”

The centerpiece of WSU’s offense in this win was wing Ri Vavers, who canned five triples for 24 points, his career-high against a Division I opponent. It’s also the third straight game scoring in double figures for Vavers, who is becoming more than just a spot-up shooter. He’s attacking closeouts. Getting to the basket. It’s another sign that with a nearly fully healthy offseason, Vavers is finally able to showcase the full breadth of his skillset.

“Every time I catch the ball, I have to look confident, look at the rim,” Vavers said. “As I said, I’m just gonna use what the defender gives us, a little jab or whatever, just try to get him off of me, and use the advantage against him.”

The Cougs (10-13, 5-5 WCC) began to turn things around with an offensive outburst of a home win over Pepperdine over the weekend. On Wednesday, they leaned on their defense, which held the visiting Redhawks (14-9, 3-7) to just 34% shooting, including an unsightly 3-for-21 display from beyond the arc. Seattle also lost 10 turnovers, leading to 15 points for WSU.

The Cougars, who return to action on Saturday to host Portland, deserve some credit for that. They walled up near the basket. They used active hands to force deflections. They picked off other passes. But it’s also worth considering that the Redhawks operate one of the nation’s worst offenses, ranking one spot up from dead last in the conference in KenPom’s offensive efficiency within conference play.

Still, it’s an encouraging win for Washington State, which languished on offense to the tune of a 69-55 loss to Seattle U in the teams’ first meeting in Seattle last month. In that one, the Cougars made just 4 of 27 shots from deep. They bludgeoned the Redhawks on the glass, winning the rebounding battle by a convincing 54-28 margin, but they produced only 14 second-chance points.

The Cougars looked better on that front in this second clash, winning the rebounding battle 39-28, but the one problem they couldn’t solve – not consistently at least – was turnovers. They committed four in the game’s first five minutes. With about four minutes to play in the first stanza, they were sitting on an even 10, and when halftime arrived and the hosts secured a 36-30 lead, they had lost 12 turnovers.

They happened in all kinds of ways. Some of the Cougars’ passes got intercepted. Sometimes they were called for offensive fouls. And other times they simply lost the ball and let the Redhawks run in transition, which is about the one thing you can’t do against Seattle U, which feasts in transition. Its half-court offense leaves much more to be desired.

Washington State did a bit better in the second half, committing seven turnovers in the second half, but it remained a problem for the hosts.

“Seattle U is an elite defensive team,” Riley said. “I think some of the offensive fouls were lazy. We gotta use our bodies. We can’t be using our hands like that. I think there was some over-penetration from us at different times, where we didn’t get passing lines and we over-penetrated. So there’s some controllable stuff that we gotta limit. Usually our goal is like 10 turnovers. Against a team like Seattle U, it might be 12 to 14. We gotta take away those five or six that we can really control.”