As WSU absorbs blowout loss to Gonzaga, Cougs left searching for answers to the same problems

PULLMAN — David Riley folded the paper in half, then tucked it under his arm, ready to watch his Washington State team try to make up ground late against Gonzaga.

His Cougars had absorbed a beating in Wednesday’s first half, but with some nine minutes left, they remained within something resembling striking distance.

Riley wore a poker face as he steeled himself for the final stretch, the Cougars holding out hope, hanging onto the few things going their way. They established a little offensive rhythm. Got a few stops. Gave Beasley Coliseum’s attendance of 10,219, a near sellout and the largest crowd since 2010, something to roar about.

But whatever was on Riley’s sheet of paper wasn’t enough to stop Gonzaga from rolling to an 84-63 win, handing the Cougs their seventh loss in eight games, squashing a deafening environment and giving Riley a chance to focus on whatever plan he had. By then it was too late for WSU, which trailed by as many as 25.

“It was a disappointing game,” Riley said, “and another one where there’s a seven-, eight-minute spurt — this time it happened in the first half — where we let it get away from us. Getting a 20-point deficit on Gonzaga is a tough hole to climb out of.”

Outside of the game’s first few minutes, when WSU raced to an 8-2 lead, the hosts were staring up from that hole all evening. Midway through the first half, Gonzaga ripped off an 8-0 run to vault ahead by double digits, which is where the lead stayed for the remainder of the game. That turned Beasley Coliseum’s crowd into white noise.

Many of the problems that have plagued the Cougars (16-12, 6-9 WCC) all season bubbled to the surface in this loss, their second to the Zags (21-7, 12-3) this season. WSU had 15 turnovers, which GU turned into 18 points, and the hosts yielded 10 offensive rebounds, which the Bulldogs parlayed into 20 second-chance points. With Cougars guard Nate Calmese a near no-show on offense, turning in just five points on 13 shots, his club faced an uphill battle.

But for WSU, if there was anything new about this setback, it came on offense. Calmese went scoreless in the first half. Forward Ethan Price, who had scored in double figures in seven of his past eight games, managed just two. As a team, the Cougars shot just 41% overall, including 9 for 25 on 3-pointers. Outside of freshman guard Tomas Thrastarson’s 12-point showing, WSU produced only five bench points.

“I think we just got too worried on the actions,” said WSU wing LeJuan Watts, who scored a team-best 19 points. “I think I just gotta get off the ball, and my turnovers really affect the game. Our plan was to attack (Graham) Ike, and I think we were too wrapped on the ball screen attacking, instead of having our offense attacking him. We just fell short on that.”

“I feel like we just usually never play at that pace,” added guard Isaiah Watts, who supplied 12 points on two 3-pointers. “We played at a pace — they slowed us down a lot. So we just gotta go back to the drawing board, get to work.”

That kind of sluggish offense may not be the Cougars’ identity, but as the regular season winds down, it’s becoming their reality. They may have faced the WCC’s two best teams in back-to-back games, losses to Saint Mary’s and Gonzaga, but the Cougars have been held under 65 points in two consecutive games. WSU has also been limited to less than 70 two more times, dating to a Jan. 23 road loss to Santa Clara, which is when the recent skid began.

It’s no coincidence that when WSU’s offense cratered, the losses started piling up, but it does underscore how many issues the Cougars have not been able to iron out.

With the exception of a five-turnover game against Oregon State, the Cougs have continued to give it away, and its rebounding issues keep preventing them from completing stops. Even when bigs like Price and Dane Erikstrup stay out of foul trouble, which they did in Wednesday’s first half, they haven’t always hit the boards — they combined for just six rebounds against Gonzaga.

 With three regular-season games remaining, the Cougars remain in seventh place in the WCC, on the outside looking in of a bye to the conference tournament’s third round. “I think it takes communication from our players. It takes us staying in the moment,” Riley said, referring to the way his group has often given up game-changing runs in losses.

“It takes better play-calling and rotations from me, and I think we all need to take a step up and figure out how to get these little moments out of our system.”

Riley puts a lot of pressure on himself, to deliver for big WSU crowds like these, to write the right things on his note sheet.

As the Cougars prepare to host Santa Clara on Saturday, Riley might spend time designing ways to get Calmese going, to get Price scoring, to put this stretch in the past.

The hard part is figuring out how all the puzzle pieces fit together.