WSU basketball: box score and a couple thoughts
Tonight I covered Washington State's NCAA Division One Soccer Championship game against Seattle University, so I didn't catch the men's basketball team's game against Utep. Because of that, my usual post game blog post will be brief. But I've still got a couple notes.
The box score is below, final thoughts are after the jump.
...
-- It's apparent what the differences in this game were: rebounds and turnovers. On the postgame radio show coach Ernie Kent told host Bud Nameck that 16 of WSU's 22 turnovers were unforced. The Cougars gave up 17 offensive rebounds, leading to 18 second-chance points for UTEP.
-- Kent told Nameck that "The entire defense did it's job. Defense wasn't the problem." The WSU defense held UTEP to just 34.9 percent from the field, a tick lower than WSU's 35.2 percent. The teams each made 28.6 percent of their 3-pointers, but WSU took seven more of them.
-- Kent also told Nameck that he felt the team handled itself well in a hostile environment but that the Cougars weren't able to play fast like they needed to. They'd better learn quickly considering how much Kent wants to push the pace of the game.
-- WSU's shooting woes haven't gone anywhere. DaVonte Lacy led the team with 36 minutes and he made just three of 12 shots. Josh Hawkinson was next with 33 minutes played and he was just three of 10. Third was Ike Iroegbu with 30 minutes and he was just 4 of 11. When three guys are playing 30-plus minutes and combine to shoot just 10 of 33 you're going to have a bad time.
-- How about the women's team? For some reason the media projected WSU to finish eighth in the Pac-12 despite returning four starters and two All-Conference players off what was a pretty solid team last season. Well, the Cougars just blew out No. 22 Dayton, 76-60, in a game that was never close, so WSU already looks better than expected.
-- Big night for former Cougar Royce Woolridge, who scored 15 points for Grand Canyon University in an 85-45 loss at No. 1 Kentucky. Woolridge hit all four 3-pointers he attempted and led the team in scoring.
