WSU stifles Idaho in Battle of the Palouse

PULLMAN – Ernie Kent began Washington State’s game against Idaho in unfamiliar surroundings, seated next to Vandals coach Don Verlin on the UI bench.

But after the game’s first shot went up, he ambled back to his own seat at the head of the Cougars’ bench, which was surely a much happier place to spend the rest of WSU’s 61-48 win.

Both coaches won before the game even began by coming together to raise awareness for Coaches vs. Cancer, and Kent donated $2,000 to sit by Verlin at the start of the game. The pair talked before the game and reflected on their fathers, both of whom died because of cancer.

“I don’t think anybody’s seen that anywhere in the country, where an opposing coach has stood on one side of the field, sat on the other team’s bench, sat in another team’s dugout,” Kent said. “The importance was coaches standing up for such a worthy cause and for all those people who have survived cancer, all those people who lost loved ones.”

Kent said the moment was the best of his coaching career. And the night only got better with his team putting together one of its most complete games of the season and leading for every second after Connor Clifford scored the game’s first bucket.

The Cougars ended a two-game losing streak in the oldest college basketball rivalry west of the Mississippi River. The two programs first met in 1906 and WSU leads the all-time series, 162-109, although the Vandals have a 67-62 edge in games played in Moscow.

In other games the Cougars (5-4) have won this season, they have received superlative performances from their best players. Whether it was Josh Hawkinson scoring 29 points and adding 14 rebounds against Montana, or Malachi Flynn pouring in 27 points against Utah Valley, WSU won because it had the best player on the floor.

“You never know which player is going to step up and lead us in scoring,” Hawkinson said. “I think that’s what makes us a threat to other teams.”

On Wednesday, WSU arguably did not have the best player on the floor. The Cougars won handily, anyway.

Ike Ireogbu led the team with 16 points on just seven shots, making all three of his 3-pointers. WSU had five players score at least seven points.

“The fact that they switched up their defense so much, it didn’t give on guy the chance to take over the game,” Kent said. “They kept you guessing and it allowed us to share the ball and different guys stepped up and hit big shots.”

WSU shot 39.1 percent from the field and held the Vandals to 25.8 percent. UI attempted 26 3-pointers and made just four as the Cougars emphasized closing out on shooters and tracking Victor Sanders, who still led all scorers with 18 points.

“We just missed a bunch of shots. You have to give credit to Washington State and their defense,” Verlin said. “Their size really bothered us around the basket. We just didn’t score our ball the way we needed to tonight.”

Clifford, playing on his birthday, scored the game’s first two points and finished with eight points, six rebounds and three blocks.

The Vandals stayed within shouting distance of the Cougars thanks to Sanders, who made three of their four 3-pointers. Sanders scored UI’s first eight points of the second half as the Vandals closed to within 10 points, but without his running mate Perrion Callendret there was not enough firepower to match WSU’s offense.

Callendret, who scored 25 points in UI’s 78-74 win over WSU last year, has missed all but the first two games of the season with a bone bruise in his knee.

Ike Iroegbu hounded Sanders throughout the first half, holding him to six points. Once he tired and Sanders began to heat up in the second half, the Cougars rotated various defenders on him, most frequently employing lengthy wing Derrien King.