WSU suffers first loss of season with 76-66 setback to Iowa in neutral-site game in Illinois

Nov. 15—Sometime later this season, David Riley figures, his Washington State team will appreciate the result.

The Cougars will be better for taking a 76-66 loss to Iowa on Friday evening in a neutral-site game in Illinois, especially once conference play kicks off.

But to make sure that happens, WSU will need to improve. The categories are obvious: In the loss, the Cougars’ first of the season in their fourth game, they connected on just 5 of 28 3-pointers. They lost 18 turnovers, which the Hawkeyes (4-0) turned into 20 points. And their bench managed just eight points, leaving almost all the work to their starters.

The Cougars got a game-high 27 points from guard Nate Calmese, his most since playing at Lamar two seasons ago, and wing LeJuan Watts added 11 points and 10 rebounds. But Calmese’s last field goal came with a shade less than 12 minutes to play, leaving the Cougars without a key source of offense in the final moments.

WSU took a 36-33 lead into halftime, but the advantage unraveled late in the second half, when Iowa used an 8-0 run to take the lead for good.

“I think it’s a big lesson for us,” said Riley, WSU’s first-year coach, on the Cougars’ postgame radio show. “We’re going to have a lot of these games, and we’re going to go win a game that’s just like this in the (final) 3 minutes, because we went through this. So the big thing is it’s November. We have a fully new team. It was our first time as a group having to execute late game, and we learned the importance of really just sticking to the game plan and not getting lost in the last play, or whatever is happening in the moment.”

In a game with 16 lead changes and nine ties, WSU (3-1) still had its chances. With about 4 minutes to play, senior wing Cedric Coward knocked down a 3-pointer from the left side, snapping a long drought for the Cougars. On their next trip, center Ethan Price let a defender fly by and hit another 3-pointer, injecting a surge of energy into WSU’s offense, which was scuffling at that…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/wsu-suffers-first-loss-season-045900532.html

Author : The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash.

Publish date : 2024-11-16 04:59:00

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