Turnovers and poor shooting doom WSU in 89-73 loss to rival Washington

SEATTLE — David Riley unfolded his frame from the chair, grabbed the paper box score off the table and ducked through the doorway, heading to the Washington State team bus. The Cougars had a flight to catch, back to Pullman and away from Alaska Airlines Arena, where his WSU team took an 89-73 loss to rival Washington on Wednesday night.

In a Quad 2 setback, the Cougars hardly looked like themselves. The box score Riley left with told the story: WSU lost 22 turnovers, shot just 6-for-20 from beyond the arc and because of foul trouble, it could never establish the offensive rhythm that Riley prides himself on. Instead, they faced a deficit as wide as 20 as the hosts ran away with what turned into a blowout victory.

It was perhaps the most disjointed offensive outing all season for WSU (9-3), which got a team-best 21 points from Nate Calmese. Besides that, though, the Cougs had trouble scoring. A 43% shooting mark belies how difficult offense was to come by for Washington State, which did well to hang around for much of the second half.

The Cougs couldn’t keep that up in large part because they couldn’t rely on their main rotation players. Wing LeJuan Watts picked up his fourth foul less than a minute into the second half, prompting him to head to the bench. Forward Dane Erikstrup was whistled for his fourth moments later. Without the scoring punch and two-way abilities those guys provide, the Cougs had to go deeper on their bench, and even that didn’t work: WSU generated just five bench points.

“Last time we played a Big Ten team, we got an apology from the officials,” Riley said, referring to his group’s loss to Iowa on Nov. 15. “I’m gonna go watch the film and see what happened. But it’s a tough pill to swallow when two starters have got four fouls 25 minutes into the game. I don’t know — we gotta figure out how to defend without fouling, I guess, especially against Big Ten teams.”

It was clear Riley was frustrated with the officials, who called a combined 47 fouls in 40 minutes of action. It robbed the game of any flow, and particularly on the road, that can disrupt a WSU team that relies heavily on it. The Cougs weren’t doing themselves any favors with their turnovers — Nate Calmese and Isaiah Watts each logged five — but they never seemed to be playing the way they like to.

Credit Washington’s defense for much of that. From the opening tip, they showed the Cougs the type of ball pressure they struggled with in their last loss, a neutral-site setback to SMU last month. The Huskies didn’t let the Cougars get into their sets very easily. Without time to see the floor and without space to operate with the dribble, WSU languished on offense for much of the night.

UW turned 22 turnovers into 24 points, capitalizing on a variety of WSU mistakes: Forcing passes that weren’t there, miscommunications, loose handles and more. It was more of the same for the Cougars, who entered committing an average of 14.7 turnovers, No. 330 nationally.

The Cougars, who return to action Saturday against Northern Iowa in Las Vegas, did open the game well. They took a lead as wide as eight in the first half when Calmese polished off an and-one. It just didn’t last.

“Their ball pressure obviously bothered us,” Riley said. “I think we maybe didn’t have the right mindset. I didn’t feel like we were in a triple threat position a lot. I thought we were kinda playing the ball above our head. Just casual a few times. No ball fakes, a little loose with the ball. I think when you have that, it kinda spirals early in the game, and we just never got a hold of kinda making those simple plays.”

After a promising start, WSU’s defense also fell asleep. For the game, UW shot 50% from the floor. The Huskies connected on 10 of 21 shots from deep, including three each from Mekhi Mason, DJ Davis and Tyler Harris, who combined for 48 points. The hosts also committed just seven turnovers.

Davis did sink a tough fadeaway from the corner, but the Cougs also made their share of mistakes on defense. Sometimes they went under screens. Other times they closed out too short to capable shooters. The problems ran together. They snowballed.

Not until the last eight or nine minutes, though, did the Huskies put the game away. Earlier in the second half, WSU seized a lightning bolt of momentum thanks to a dunk from Isaiah Watts, who attacked a closeout and detonated on UW big man Great Osobor. Here’s the clip.

Only one problem: Always energetic and volatile, Watts got in Osobor’s face and immediately got a technical foul, allowing Davis to get the two points right back at the free throw line. For the Cougars, it sapped the energy they had just produced. They never drew within single digits again.

“Isaiah getting that T probably saved me getting a T,” Riley said. “I told the coaching staff I was gonna go get one here right around that time. It was one of those games where we out-rebounded them by 19. We were posting up every possession. We were clearly the more physical team. They ended up with five more free throws. I don’t know.”