WSU beats game-tested LCSC
PULLMAN — Washington State came into its Wednesday night men’s basketball exhibition game with Lewis-Clark State College having played just one scrimmage against another team and with two freshmen in the starting lineup. LCSC, an NAIA school, had played five regular season games already and actually counted last night’s game as a sixth.
Based on that alone, the helter-skelter play shouldn’t have come as a great surprise.
“I think we were just very, very loose. We didn’t respect the basketball,” Washington State coach Dick Bennett said. “The older kids know what we value and they just kind of simply threw it to the wind.”
But it was still good enough for the Cougars to walk away from Friel Court with a 62-53 win, even though 23 turnovers and 3-of-16 shooting from beyond the arc made things look difficult.
Lewis-Clark State came to Friel Court already sporting a 4-1 record in NAIA play, and Bennett was complimentary of the Warriors’ style of play and coaching, which he said “made us look quite bad for portions of the game.”
The Warriors played a zone defense against WSU — something Bennett said his team had spent only one practice working against. Now, the Cougars have eight days to prepare for the first game that will count toward its record, the Nov. 19 season opener against Montana State.
Senior Jeff Varem led the Cougars in points and rebounds with 16 and 12 in 35 minutes on the floor. Varem was 6 of 7 from the floor, and while Bennett said his defense still needs work, Varem’s athleticism on the offensive end helped overpower the small LCSC roster.
“Being the first game of the year, I think we did all right,” Varem said. “Sometimes you tend to be in a hurry, tend to rush things. Basketball is a game where you tend to learn from mistakes and hopefully we learn from them.”
Both freshmen in the starting lineup, point guard Kyle Weaver and center Robbie Cowgill, appeared to make a positive impact in many facets of the game.
Weaver is filling in for another freshman, Derrick Low, who is injured and out until December, and on Wednesday he showed flashes of the passing abilities that Bennett has praised this fall. But Weaver also turned the ball over five times to go along with his five assists, and also fouled out with two minutes left.
Cowgill showed a knack for being in the right place on the offensive end, scoring 10 points and adding seven rebounds. But he also had difficulty establishing position at times because of his 6-foot-10, 200-pound frame, and had a baseline jumper blocked by a shorter defender.
Thomas Kelati, the Cougars’ leading returning scorer, had 11 points despite going 1 of 7 from three-point range. Guard Danny Allen led the Warriors with 15 points.
Notes
The attendance was announced as 2,427. Admission to the exhibition game was free. … Power forward Chris Henry, a freshman who injured his ankle in the week before team practice began, is still about 2-3 weeks away from being available. Henry has been participating in individual workouts at practice this week.