‘Embarassed’ Lacy sparks Cougs’ victory

PULLMAN – The Washington State Cougars left Beasley Coliseum ice-cold following an embarrassing display of poor shooting in their last game. But the Cougars sizzled on Saturday during a 91-71 romp over visiting Texas-San Antonio.

Of course, somebody had already preheated the gym.

Following Wednesday’s 77-71 loss to Idaho, in which the Cougars made just 5 of 30 3-point attempts, DaVonte Lacy said that he and his teammates needed to head to the gym and shoot.

In fact, he stayed in Beasley until 2 a.m., until he was too tired to continue and his form deteriorated.

“That’s probably the worst feeling I’ve felt as a basketball player,” said Lacy of the Idaho loss.

“I was so embarrassed and I think I can speak for the team, we all were,” he continued. “I didn’t want that to carry over and I knew I could have played better, I should have played better and I was going to play better the next game.”

He played much better, tying a career high with eight 3-pointers and scoring 31 points. After the win he credited his teammates for putting him in position to score, and all eight of his outside shots came with an assist.

But it was Lacy’s early offense that sparked the rest of the Cougars, who only needed seven attempts to make five 3-pointers on Saturday. Lacy outscored the Roadrunners until there were about 7 minutes left in the first half and he accounted for 21 points in WSU’s 52-26 halftime lead.

The Cougars again shot 30 3-pointers, making 18 of them to tie the school’s single-game record. In recent years, difficulty scoring has encumbered WSU and the team averaged just 66.4 points entering the game.

For once outside shooting was the reason the Cougars won, because without the early cushion it provided the Cougars would have been in for a struggle.

The Roadrunners began to press the Cougars in the backcourt in the second half and WSU’s guards were hesistant to the point of being timid, often passing two or more times before crossing half-court or throwing a bad pass.

WSU turned it over 13 times in the second half and UTSA scored 23 points off those turnovers. It’s a problem that is particularly irksome for WSU coach Ernie Kent, who sees an opponent’s press as an opportunity for his up-tempo style of offense to flourish.

“I thought we were too passive; we were trying to set up,” Kent said. “If you break a press and set up, I’m going to continue to press you. If you break a press and go score, I’m going to take the press off of you. We need to go score against the press more.”

The press did provide an opportunity for freshman Trevor Dunbar to contribute. After some initial hesitation he became WSU’s most effective player against pressure and was able to get up the floor quickly and stress the Roadrunners with nifty dribbling.

Led by guard Ryan Bowie, who scored 22 points, the Roadrunners were the more attacking team and made more free throws (18 of 29) than WSU attempted (11 of 15).

Of course, with the way the Cougars were shooting from the outside, there wasn’t an urgent need to attack the basket.

The Cougars (4-4) have won three of their last four games. Lacy has scored 31 points twice in that stretch and if he’s really found his rhythm and can force defenses to devote extra attention to him then the rest of WSU’s offensive issues could be mitigated.