Washington State starts second half strong to beat Bradley 91-74, opening season with two straight wins

PULLMAN — In the days after Washington State opened the new season earlier this week, uncertainty hovered over the Cougars’ program. They had dispatched Portland State, but they allowed 92 points in the process, putting new head coach David Riley and his approach under scrutiny.

Were the Cougs still gelling on defense? Were they just gassed by the Vikings’ frenetic pace? Or was there something more fundamental at play, something more concerning about the holes in their defense?

The jury may still be out on that front, but WSU did its part to quell those concerns with a 91-74 win over Bradley on Friday night. In their second game of the season, the Cougars rebounded much better, forced live-ball turnovers and produced timely rotations, throwing the Braves out of sync — especially in the second half.

“I thought it was a great college basketball game,” WSU coach David Riley said. “Bradley is a veteran team that has a lot of returners. Our guys answered the bell, and it was just a really fun game. And the big message to our team is, we’re gonna score the ball. We have a great offensive team. But when we guard and lock down like we did the beginning of that second half, we can be a great team on both sides.”

Up only three at halftime, WSU (2-0) didn’t allow Bradley — KenPom’s No. 80 team entering Friday’s game — to score from the field for nearly the first 7 minutes of the second half, using a 19-1 run to pull away. For the second straight game, six Cougs scored in double figures, led by point guard Nate Calmese and veteran wing Cedric Coward with 18 apiece, including a catch-and-shoot 3-pointer to put WSU up 19 midway through the second half.

On defense, WSU looked like a far different team. Bradley shot 44% from the field, down from Portland State’s 48% figure. The Cougs closed out better and rebounded better — the rebounds went 38-30 in the hosts’ favor. Much of that credit goes to transfer wing LeJuan Watts, who recorded a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds, including four offensive boards.

After Monday’s game, when WSU yielded 13 offensive rebounds for 16 second-chance points to Portland State, the Cougs turned that around. Bradley snared just seven offensive boards and turned those into 10 second-chance points, giving WSU more chances to run in transition — and the group capitalized.

This WSU team is at its best running, even off made baskets, but the situation didn’t seem to matter on Friday night. The Cougs sank 10 of 31 shots from deep, including a run of three to kick off the second half, and they spread the scoring around for the second straight game.

It profiles as the kind of trend that Riley and WSU can keep going. Most everyone on the floor is a willing shooter — the Cougs’ starting big men, Ethan Price and Dane Erikstrup, combined to shoot 5-for-13 from deep — and when you’re always pushing the ball up the floor, relying more on ball screens and improvisation than set plays, the offense tends to flow. Through two games, it looks like a credible tendency.

“We’ve just got a big emphasis on being consistent,” said Erikstrup, who finished with 16 points, scoring in double figures for the second-straight game. “We gave up 42 or something in the first half, and then in the second half we came out, and every timeout, we just came in and kept saying, stay consistent. I feel like that was a big thing for us.”

Another part of WSU’s consistency on offense: Getting to the free throw line. The Cougars connected on 27 of 33 free throws, and on Monday, they hit 25 of 32. That adds up to 65 free throws in two games, which keeps with a trend that Riley established at his previous stop of Eastern Washington. Last season, EWU wing Casey Jones — who has committed to play at WSU after a two-year church mission — led the country with a free-throw rate of 101.9.

WSU also took far better care of the ball. In their win over the Vikings, the Cougars lost 21 turnovers, including five from Calmese and four apiece from Coward and Isaiah Watts. In Friday’s game, WSU brought its turnover total down to nine, and just two in the second half.

“I think it was just our guys locking in and doing their job. A lot more simple plays,” Riley said. “I feel like we had a lot of turnovers in the first four minutes. We might have had four turnovers the first four or five minutes of the game, and just started making simpler plays. We didn’t come out offensively necessarily how we wanted to. I think we rushed some shots and turn the ball over, and once we settled in, I thought we were better.”

Through two games, WSU has played without Cal transfer ND Okafor and true freshman Kase Wynott, who Riley called “day-to-day” with injuries after Monday’s game. Okafor suited up and warmed up prior to Friday’s game but didn’t play, while Wynott did not dress out.

The Cougars also operated without Quinnipiac transfer wing Rihard Vavers, who exited early from Monday’s game holding his wrist. After the game, Riley said he was told Vavers’ injury wasn’t particularly serious — but if his absence Friday is any indication, it might be more serious than initially expected.

Riley didn’t provide much of an update on any of them after Friday’s game, saying “they’re getting better every day. Hopefully it’s soon. We’ll see.”