Offense goes quiet late for WSU

Washington State went scoreless for 5 minutes late in the game, and Kansas State turned a two-point lead into a 62-53 non-conference win at Manhattan, Kan.

Fred Peete scored a career-high 18 points for the Wildcats (3-0), who handed WSU its first loss of the season.

“I think it was a really good game until the last 5 minutes,” WSU head coach Dick Bennett said. “We lost our poise and they retained theirs. That was basically the story of the game. We just turned the ball over and took some bad shots. We didn’t convert the good ones that we had.”

WSU (2-1) was as close as 49-47 after Josh Akognon’s 3-pointer with 6:44 left in the game, but K-State outscored the Cougars 9-0 over the next 5 minutes, a run capped by freshman Clent Stewart’s 3-pointer.

K-State used another run to build an early second-half lead, as a 14-4 Wildcats run erased a three-point Cougars advantage. Jeremiah Massey scored six of his 15 points in the second half.

Thomas Kelati led the Cougars in scoring with 11 points, including three 3-pointers. Kelati was the only Cougar in double figures, as WSU struggled from the field, shooting 21 of 55 (38.2 percent).

“This game, defensively, was a different kind of challenge for us,” K-State head coach Jim Woolridge said. “This is a motion game that we had to guard. Washington State’s offense really challenged a lot of people because of all that movement and the level of their players.”

WSU was hot in the first half from beyond the 3-point line, as the Cougars hit five in the first half as they built a 30-28 lead. Robbie Cowgill finished off the half with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to give WSU its first lead.

“That’s pretty much how we have to play,” Bennett said of the Cougars’ first half. “We don’t have a single guy right now that can break the defense by himself, or rise up over the top of anyone.”

Kyle Weaver chipped in six points and six assists, and Jeff Varem pulled down eight rebounds for the Cougars. Akognon was WSU’s second-leading scorer with eight.

WSU is in action again on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Idaho before the Cougars travel to Stillwater, Okla., on Saturday afternoon to take on the sixth-ranked Oklahoma State Cowboys.