Washington State earns road win over Pepperdine to complete regular season, earning No. 6 seed for WCC tourney
PULLMAN – Washington State has wrapped up the regular season and its postseason picture is clear.
With a 90-83 road win over Pepperdine Saturday night, the Cougars completed their regular-season schedule, doing so on a two-game winning streak to earn an 18-13 (8-10 West Coast Conference) record. Five scored in double figures for WSU, which enjoyed some of its best passing and bench production of the season.
The Cougars earned the No. 6 seed at the WCC Tournament, meaning they get a bye to Saturday’s third round, playing at 8:30 p.m. against the No. 7, 10 or 11 seed.
“This is not an easy place to come in and play on Senior Night, and we stuck together for 40 minutes,” WSU coach David Riley said in a postgame radio interview. “I’ve been preaching 40 minutes for a really long time. There were stretches where we didn’t do the right stuff. They went on some scoring runs. We fouled some shooters. But overall, we kept our composure, and I think that showed statistically in the assists and the turnovers.”
WSU recorded 26 assists on 35 made shots, including nine assists from sophomore wing LeJuan Watts, and five apiece from guard Nate Calmese and forward Dane Erikstrup. The five Cougs who scored in double figures were Erikstrup and Ethan Price (15 points apiece), forward ND Okafor (career-high 13 points), wing Ri Vavers (12 points) and Calmese (10 points).
WSU, which took a 48-34 lead into halftime, also took better care of the ball than it has recently.
The Cougars had only nine turnovers, a much better outing than the season-high 23 they had on Thursday against San Diego. That helped WSU withstand Pepperdine’s runs, including an 8-0 stretch early in the second half.
Instead of wilting, as their 30-point lead shrunk to five against San Diego, the Cougs responded. After that eight-point surge, WSU sandwiched an Erikstrup jumper and an Isaiah Watts 3-pointer around a Pepperdine free throw, pushing its lead back to double digits, a theme the visitors kept going all night.
But for WSU, perhaps the biggest development from the regular-season finale came from somewhere else. It came from the Cougars’ bench, which generated a season-best 35 points, taking the pressure off go-to scorers like Calmese, Isaiah and LeJuan Watts and Price. Sophomore guard Parker Gerrits hit two 3-pointers , and Vavers’ 12 points are his most in a Cougars uniform.
Quiet for nearly the entire season, WSU’s bench production was music to the ears of Riley, whose shorthanded team has struggled to get consistent scoring production from the fringes this season.
To get it from Okafor and Vavers, the latter of whom has been in and out of the lineup this season battling various injuries, added up to important growth for the Cougars.
“It’s just a great thing,” Riley said. “To win on the road, you need to have a full team effort, and to see these bench points – 35-6. I haven’t looked at a box score in a really, really long time, and seen our bench outscore and outplay the other team like that. So proud of this group.
“I think it started a couple weeks ago with their fire and energy. I was watching in shootaround today. We broke up the starters and that second unit. That second unit was loud. They were talking. They were doing everything right. They were executing the game plan. It was really great to see that translate to us winning 35-6 off the bench.”
WSU’s first opponent at the WCC Tournament, set for the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, will be Loyola Marymount, Pacific or San Diego.