Isaiah Watts erupts in the second half as WSU stuns Nevada on the road, 68-57

PULLMAN – Not even a month into the season, David Riley may have authored his first signature win at Washington State .

The Cougars didn’t have much going for them headed into Monday night’s game at Nevada, which entered at No. 36 in the KenPom rankings. Star wing Cedric Coward remained out with a shoulder injury, as did guards Kase Wynott and Marcus Wilson, who are out with their own injuries.

Then, only a few moments after returning to action for the first time in nearly a month with an injury, wing Ri Vavers left the game with another injury. Only moments into the second half, WSU bigs ND Okafor and Dane Erikstrup went to the bench with their fourth fouls.

None of it made a difference to the Cougs, who left with a 68-57 win over the Wolfpack, moving to 7-2 on the season. An 111/2-point underdog, WSU shattered expectations for this game, securing a lead as large as 21.

“I thought we did it with togetherness,” WSU coach David Riley said on a postgame radio interview. “We had our first two losses versus Iowa and SMU, and I don’t know if we were confident and fully believed that we should go win those games. I think watching the film of both of those games, watching the film of the SMU game, it kinda gave us confidence. We’re better than these teams if we go execute and play together and be us. I thought we did that tonight.”

It’s a Quad 1 win for WSU, which got four players in double-figure scoring: Guard Isaiah Watts hit five triples for 17 points, wing LeJuan Watts posted 13 points and guard Nate Calmese and forward Ethan Price added 10 points apiece. Before leaving with another injury after just five minutes of action, Vavers totaled eight points on two long balls.

The Cougs scored many of those points on assisted shots. WSU recorded 19 assists on 25 made shots, including a career-high seven assists from Calmese, who also pulled down eight rebounds. LeJuan Watts dished out six assists and the Cougars got another three from freshman Tomas Thrastarson, who scored his only points on a 3-pointer late in the first half.

Every time the Wolfpack showed signs of life, trying to creep back into the game, the Cougars had an answer. Early in the second half, after Nevada guard Kobe Sanders connected from beyond the arc, WSU responded with an 8-0 run, which included a triple from Isaiah Watts, a dunk from Price and an old-fashioned three-point play from LeJuan Watts.

Then, later in the second half, the Wolfpack added back-to-back jumpers to trim its deficit to 13. So Isaiah Watts followed with a triple, scoring 15 of his 17 points in the second half. It’s a nice boost for Watts, who had made just 4 of his last 15 from the outside, an uncharacteristic slump for one of the team’s best shooters. His scoring punch, especially with WSU so shorthanded, has been crucial.

“I thought Isaiah hit some huge ones to break the momentum. He hit the dagger,” said Riley, who didn’t have much of an update on Vavers after the game. “Talking about about big threes – Tomas, in the first half, hit a huge one when they were on a run. The guys have some nerves of steel.”

But the Cougars really got it done on the defensive end, where they held the Wolfpack to just 39% shooting from the field, including a 4-for-20 showing from distance. Considering where Nevada stacked up coming into this game – second nationally with a 3-point percentage of 47%, third with a field goal percentage of 53% – and WSU’s defensive effort zooms into focus.

The Cougs did it mostly with a zone defense, dragging the Wolfpack’s offense down into long slumps. With their length and activity on the perimeter, the Cougars weren’t sacrificing much with that defensive look.

“It’s big time,” Riley said.

WSU returns to action on Saturday, facing Boise State at the Idaho Central Arena in Boise, which will go down as a neutral-site game because it isn’t on the Broncos’ campus. On Monday, BSU was No. 38 in the NET rankings, making that game another Quad 1 opportunity for WSU.