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WSU Men's Basketball

WSU takes second loss to Pacific, 70-68, extinguishing Cougars’ NCAA Tournament at-large hopes

WSU guard Nate Calmese scans the floor Thursday night against Pacific.  (Courtesy of WSU Athletics)

STOCKTON, Calif. – Since he went on the shelf for the rest of the season with a shoulder injury, Washington State star wing Cedric Coward has picked up a fun hobby to help his healthier teammates lock in during pregame warmups.

Coward will watch one Cougar practice their handle, usually a freshman like Tomas Thrastarson or Kase Wynott, who will use one hand to dribble high and the other to dribble low. Coward will crouch down right in front of them, their faces inches apart, a test for the younger Cougars: Can they keep their dribble? More important, can they maintain their focus?

So with about an hour until WSU’s road test against last-place Pacific Thursday night, dressed in a crimson T-shirt and gray sweatpants, Coward walked near midcourt and stared in the face of Thrastarson, who did well to keep a poker face. But as a team, WSU couldn’t do the same, absorbing a second loss to Pacific, this one a 70-68 defeat.

“This is really, really tough loss,” said WSU coach David Riley, whose team gave up 16 offensive rebounds for eight second-chance points. “This is really frustrating for us as a program. I gotta figure out what buttons to push, because we’re not coming out with the fight we need.”

It was a scattershot effort from WSU (15-8, 5-5 WCC), which lost 15 turnovers leading to 19 Pacific points. In the first half, the Cougars were called for a flagrant and a bench technical on the same possession, resulting in a four-point trip for the Tigers. It was emblematic of the disjointed effort the visitors showed, unable to piece together stops and scores.

That trend never went away for the Cougars, who couldn’t secure key stops in crunch time, including giving up the winner to forward Jazz Gardner in the final seconds. That left the Cougars with only a few seconds to counter, and after guard Nate Calmese’s driving layup was blocked, his inbounds pass — with 0.5 seconds left — was batted away as the final buzzer sounded.

Perhaps top of mind for Riley and WSU: The 6-foot-11 Erikstrup and 6-9 backup forward ND Okafor pulled down just one rebound apiece, leaving a hole on the glass for the Cougars, whose rebounding issues have plagued them all season, in wins and losses alike.

“There was definitely some times when we didn’t box out,” Riley said. “I got a lot of big guys with one rebound next to their name, that probably aren’t pursuing the ball.”

For WSU, which returns to action Saturday at San Francisco, it’s the second Quad 4 loss of the season to Pacific. The Cougars’ NCAA Tournament at-large bid took a serious blow with the first loss, which came on Jan. 9, and now they have died altogether. Five days after going toe-to-toe with first-place Saint Mary’s, a game Riley left feeling somewhat encouraged, his group absorbed a loss that may define this season.

So to Riley, how does his team play WCC powerhouse Saint Mary’s so close, then turn around and drop another game to Pacific, who has now won its first home conference game since the 2022-23 season?

“That’s the million dollar question. I gotta figure that out,” Riley said. “That’s on me, for our guys to be that good, to be able to play like that at home vs. St Mary’s, and then come do this… Something’s not right with what buttons we’re pushing.”

The final moments included all kinds of drama.

With just more than a minute to play, WSU forward Dane Erikstrup hit a wing 3-pointer to tie the game at 65. On the previous possession, after forward Ethan Price couldn’t secure a rebound putting back his miss, Riley was hit with a technical foul. He put his hands on his head in disbelief, but on the other end, the Tigers missed both free throws – and they turned it over on their extra possession.

In the final minute, Pacific guard Lamar Washington – who capped a 40-point outburst with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer in the teams’ first meeting in Pullman – hit a go-ahead 3-pointer. On the other end, Calmese followed with a 3-pointer, knotting the game at 68.

But the Cougars couldn’t make it count against the Tigers, whose two WCC wins have both come over WSU.

This game also marked the return of WSU guard Isaiah Watts, who had missed the previous 10 games with a hand injury, an absence of more than a monthAfter a wayward first half, Watts kick-started the swing that put the Cougars in a better spot. With the game tied at 45, he hit a catch-and-shoot 3-pointer from the right wing. Seconds later, Erikstrup swiped the inbounds pass and scored, handing WSU a 50-45 lead.

But instead of pulling away, he Cougars let the Tigers hang around. Pacific followed that 7-0 surge with back-to-back 3-pointers, setting up the final sequences.

“Defensive energy was really good during that stretch,” Riley said. “And I don’t know. I need to re-evaluate what happened after that.”

All told, it offers a moment of reckoning for WSU, which has tumbled from grace in remarkably quick fashion. Just a few weeks ago, the Cougars topped the Dons at home to move to 13-3 overall and 3-0 in WCC play, overcoming a rash of injuries — to Coward, to Watts, to freshman guard Marcus Wilson and transfer wing Rihards Vavers, who has now played three games since returning — to prompt questions to athletic director Anne McCoy.

Should Riley be getting a contract extension?

Part of the calculus involved the fluid situation at Washington State, whose basketball programs are operating as WCC affiliates for this season and the next, before the rebuilt Pac-12 begins competition in the 2026-27 season. But it was a relevant query for McCoy, who said she had not discussed an extension with Riley, but added she would be open to it at some point.

In the same month, the Cougs have now been swept by Pacific, which entered Thursday’s game No. 308 in the NET rankings, one of the worst teams in the country and perhaps the worst in the WCC. WSU has lost three straight and five of its last seven, its season cratering only weeks after catching fire.

Unless the Cougars find a way to win the WCC tournament in March, their quest for a second straight NCAA Tournament will be over. If it didn’t die with their first loss to Pacific, it certainly vaporized with their second.