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| Posted on Thursday, January 09 @ 00:00:18 PST |
Greg Davis/WSU Photo Cougar Men Host Pacific Thursday Night January 08, 2025 | By: WSU Athletic Communications Share: PACIFIC TIGERS (5-13, 0-4) at WASHINGTON STATE COUGARS (13-3, 3-0) Thursday, January 9, 2025 6:32 p.m. PT (9:32 p.m. ET) Pullman, Wash. Friel Court at Beasley Coliseum Capacity: 11,671 COUGAR RADIO NETWORK KXLY 920AM // KHTR 104.3FM KTTH 770AM // KONA 610AM Play-by-Play: Chris King Analyst: Craig Ehlo TELEVISION & STREAMING ESPN+ (remote) Play-by-Play: Guy Haberman Analyst: Mike Montgomery Producer: David Feldman OPENING TIPS 1. Washington State concludes its homestand with a Thursday contest against the Pacific Tigers, Jan. 9 at 6:30 p.m. The Tigers are under first-year head coach Dave Smart. The upcoming tilt marks the inaugural game between the schools and will also be Greek Night at Beasley Coliseum. 2. Coach David Riley has led the Cougs to their best start since 2006-07 at 13-3. Tony Bennett boasted the best start by a first-year head coach in the 2006-07 Coug season. Riley is just the second Wazzu coach in school history to start his first season with 13 wins in 16 games. 3. WSU ranks top-25 in the country in four team categories: 16th in 2-point FG% (.
593), 16th in blocks per game (5.5), 21st in FG% (.495), and 23rd in effective FG% (.572). Individually, Nate Calmese ranks 26th nationally with 105 FGs, and LeJuan Watts ranks 33rd nationally in rebounds (133). 4. Nate Calmese leads WSUs active roster with 16.4 points, 4.3 assists, and 1.8 steals per game. The junior transfer sits 7th in the WCC in scoring, 6th in assists, and 5th in steals per game. 5. LeJuan Watts scored a season-high 24 points with team-high 12 rebounds in the win over USF. Watts has six double-doubles and ranks fourth in the WCC with 8.3 rebounds per game. LAST TIME OUT WSU defeated the San Francisco Dons, 91-82, Saturday afternoon at Beasley Coliseum in Pullman, Washington. Wazzu played its first WCC game at Beasley Coliseum, improving to 3-0 in Conference. Five Cougars scored in double figures, led by LeJuan Watts with a career-high 24 points and team-high 12 rebounds for his sixth double-double. Ethan Price scored 20 points. Erikstrup scored 18 points with a WSU career-high nine rebounds. The Cougs shot a season-high 41 free throws, finishing with a season-high 34 makes and season-high 82.9% at the charity stripe. PICK YOUR POISON The Cougars have distributed scoring across the majority of the playing rotation with four active players averaging 10+ points through 16 games.
At least four Cougs have scored in double figures 10 times, while six different individuals have tallied 20-point performances. Nate Calmese sits seventh in the conference in scoring and LeJuan Watts ranks fourth in the WCC in rebounding. SHARING THE ROCK The Cougs dished out 24 assists in the win over Portland, Dec. 28, matching the season-high with the most single-game assists in six seasons. WSU is undefeated at 12-0 when tallying 15+ assists, most recently defeating LMU after dishing out 17 assists. In contrast, the Cougs are 1-3 when delivering fewer than 15 assists, securing their first win with 14 assists against San Francisco, Jan. 4. UP NEXT Washington State returns to the road with a short trip north to face the Gonzaga Bulldogs, Saturday, Jan. 11, in Spokane. Tip off is scheduled for 6 p.m. with coverage on ESPN+ and locally on SWX. The Cougars and Bulldogs will meet for the first time since 2015 after the series was removed from the nonconference schedule as one of the longest continuous series in college basketball history, dating back 150 games and 108 continuous seasons, to a 21-18 WSU win at Gonzaga, Dec. 16, 1907. WSU holds the 98-52 all-time advantage, while the Zags control recent history with five-straight wins and seven of the last 10 victories.
RIM PROTECTORS The Cougar team leads the WCC and ranks 16th in the country with 5.5 blocked shots per game. WSU boasts two of the top five shot blockers in the conference with Okafor at second (1.6) and Erikstrup at fifth (1.2). As a team, WSU has swatted away a collective 88 shot attempts. INJURY BUG BITES EARLY Coach David Riley confirmed in December the successful shoulder surgeries of senior Cedric Coward and freshman Marcus Wilson, both of whom will miss the remainder of the 2024-25 season on a 4-6 month recovery timeline. Sophomore Rihards Vavers is out indefinitely, likely for the season, with broken bones in both hands. Isaiah Watts suffered a hand injury against Washington, Dec. 18, and will miss several weeks. DIFFERENT KINDA COUGS WSU is built different this season, regularly playing with four or all five men around the perimeter, a different look from the 2023-24 Cougs, which played with two bigs inside. The change has results in a higher 2-point field goal percentage, nearly 60%, and a larger portion of points coming from beyond the arc. The Cougars rank 16th nationally in 2-point FG percentage. FLOOR GENERAL CALMESE Nate Calmese, who began his college career as the Southland Conference Freshman of the Year at Lamar, has seen all his ballhandling statistics improve over three seasons, including increases in assists (+115%), steals (+50%), and rebounds (+40%).
THE PRICE IS RIGHT Ethan Price, a senior transfer from Eastern Washington, has started all 116 games of his career for Coach Riley. The Englishman surpassed 1,000 career points during his junior season with the Eagles. Early this season, Price dished out his 200th career assist and the senior most recently surpassed 500 career rebounds to become the first Cougar player since Kyle Weaver (2004-08) to record at least 1,000 points, 500 rebounds, and 200 career assists. TRIPLE-DOUBLE THREAT Head Coach David Riley has describe LeJuan Watts as a consistent threat for a recording a triple-double. The sophomore standout got the closest hes been as a Coug with eight points, 11 rebounds, and career-high eight assists in the Dec. 30 win over LMU. It was the most complete performance since Kyle Weaver delivered the only triple-double in WSU history, Jan. 13, 2007 with 14 points, 13 rebounds, and 10 assists. LeJuan Watts notched his sixth double-double, Jan. 4, with a career-high 24 points. Watts has led the Cougs in rebounding 12 times. NONCONFERENCE SUCCESS The Cougars concluded the nonconference schedule at 10-3, earning 10 nonconference wins for the first time since 2010-11, a group that ultimately reached the NIT semifinals with Klay Thompson.
Coach David Riley became the first WSU first-year head coach since Ken Bone in 2009-10 to win 12 of his first 15 games. Riley became the third coach in Coug history to start 12-3 or better in his first season on the Palouse. EFFICIENT IN THE ARC In the Nov. 18 win over Northern Colorado, the Cougars shot 76.7% from 2-point range, the highest single-game 2-point percentage by a Wazzu team since December 9, 2007, when the Cougs shot 76.7% from inside the arc against Portland State (26-40). WSU boasts the top effective FG team in the WCC with a .572 eFG%, 23rd in Division-I as of Jan. 8. TINKERING WITH TEMPO The Cougs are averaging 81.6 points per game, second in the WCC behind Gonzaga, and are 12-1 when scoring over 70 points. WSU got its only win when being held under 70 points in a 68-57 mudfight at Nevada, Dec. 2, in Reno. TOMAS TEASES TALENT With a short bench, true freshman Tomas Thrastarson made his first career start against Northern Iowa, Dec. 21, and has held the starting spot ever since. The Icelandic native played a season-high 30 minutes in the WCC home opener against LMU, Dec. 30, delivering a season-high 17 points and six rebounds. He repeated with another double-digit performance last Saturday in Pullman, putting up 10 points against USF, including six points from the free throw line.
ERIKSTRUP EXCELLENCE Dane Erikstrup scored a WSU career-high 24 points in WSUs win over his former team Eastern Washington, Nov. 21, becoming the fourth Coug this year with a 20-point game. The Beaverton, Oregon native also grabbed eight rebounds, setting a WSU career high, and has started every game as a Cougar. Erikstrup made a homecoming in the Cougars inaugural WCC game, playing his 80th career Division-I game at Portland, Dec. 28, and is one of four active Cougars averaging double figures. Erikstrup delivered a career-high vs D-I opponent nine rebounds against USF, Jan. 4. OKAFOR BACK ON THE FLOOR Junior ND Okafor, a transfer from California, played his first minutes as a Coug in the Nov. 11 win over Idaho. Okafor missed the first two games due to concussion protocol. In his Cougar debut, Okafor delivered a career-high 12 points, with six rebounds, a block, and a steal. In the Nov. 15 game against Iowa, Okafor pulled in five boards to eclipse 100 career rebounds. Against Fresno State, Okafor rejected a career-high three shots, and has established himself as the Cougs premier rim protector. Okafor matched his season-high in the WCC opener at Portland, scoring 12 points. AT HOME IN SPOKANE The Cougars hold an all-time record of 22-19 at Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena dating back to 1995.
The last time WSU played a conference game at Spokane Arena was a 75-62 win over Oregon State, Jan. 4, 2017 when the Cougs were led by the 2024 games TV analyst Ernie Kent. In 2011-12, Wazzu hosted both Oregon schools at Spokane Arena, and hold an all-time conference record of 3-1 in the Lilac City venue. ZAY SETTLED AS A STARTER Isaiah Watts, the only returning letterwinner from the 2023-24 roster, is on pace to quadruple his scoring, rebounding, assists, and steals output from his freshman season. The West Seattle sophomore has already eclipsed his freshman season totals in points, rebounding, steals, and assists. Three times Isaiah has surpassed 20 points, including a career-high 22 points against Eastern Wash. Zay made his first career start in place of an injured Cedric Coward, Nov. 26, grabbing a career-high five steals and remained in the starting lineup until an injury in his non-shooting hand against UW that will sideline him for several weeks. TRIO OF 20-PIECES When Cedric Coward, Dane Erikstrup, and Isaiah Watts combined for 68 points against Eastern Washington, Nov. 21, they became the first Cougar trio to scored 20 points each in the same game in 3,598 days. The last WSU trio to achieve three 20-point games at once came Jan.
15, 2015 against Oregon when Josh Hawkinson, Ike Iroegbu, and DaVonte Lacy combined for 70 points. COWARD NAMED WCC POTW Cedric Coward was named WCC Player of the Week, Nov. 25, for the first time in his career after matching his D-I career-high with 30 points vs Northern Colorado, while committing zero turnovers, the first 30-point performance of the season by a Coug. The Fresno native followed with 22 points, nine rebounds, seven assists, two blocks, and a steal against Eastern Washington. However, Coward has not seen the floor since winning the award, out for the season following left shoulder surgery. THE CENTURY MARK When the Cougs defeated Portland State, 100-92, in the season opener, the Cougars eclipsed 100 points for the first time since beating Oregon State, 103-97 in overtime, Feb. 28, 2022, in Corvallis, Ore. It marked the first triple-digit performance at Beasley Coliseum since beating CSUN, 103-94, Nov. 27, 2018. WSU scored 100 points in regulation for the first time since beating Idaho 109-61, Nov. 18, 2021 in Moscow, Idaho. COUGS PICKED FIFTH IN WCC Entering the 2024-25 season as an affiliate member of the WCC, Wazzu was selected fifth in the preseason coaches poll.
The last time a Riley team was selected fifth in the preseason poll, at EWU in 2022-23, his team rattled off an 18-game unbeaten streak on the way to a Big Sky Conference regular season championship.Print Friendly Version Related Videos Now Playing: Play Video
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