Cougars rain 3s in win over Eastern Washington

Nov. 22—SPOKANE — Washington State’s Dane Erikstrup stood face-to-face with former teammate Sebastian Hartmann of Eastern Washington. Erikstrup spun around and pitched it to Isaiah Watts, who immediately got double-teamed as Hartmann peeled off to cover.

Watts leaned back and flung the ball to Erikstrup who sent his fifth triple of the night sailing through the Spokane Arena nylon with about 14 minutes left in the game.

Erikstrup posted 24 points and Cedric Coward and Watts scored 22 each to lead the Washington State Cougars to a 96-81 men’s basketball win over Eastern Washington in coach David Riley’s first game against his former team on Thursday at Spokane Arena.

Through a combination of six 3-pointers and an 8-for-14 clip from the field, Erikstrup eclipsed 20 points for the first time as a Coug and did it versus his former team.

“When I was butt naked, wide open, I just yelled for the ball and it came my way, and I was like, ‘Okay, it’s going in,’ so I let it fly,” Erikstrup said. “You know, you get in thousands of shots every week, so just to see it go in constantly and have a good shooting night, it was a fun game.”

Fifteen minutes of Washington State basketball

The Cougars and Eagles met for the first time since Riley took a handful of EWU assistants and four former Eags with him to tip off a new era of Wazzu basketball when he was hired in April.

The Cougars used a slew of dominating runs to establish a lead and keep it, although they held a 24-point advantage in the first and second halves and allowed Eastern to close the gap to around 15 each time.

Between Erikstrup’s six, Watts’ four, Coward’s three, Calmese’s two and LeJuan Watts’ one, the Cougs sank 16 3s.

The Cougs also posted 24 assists, the most since 2018. Coward connected on seven assists and Isaiah and LeJuan Watts (no relation) each dished out five.

EWU led by one point about 11 minutes into the game before a Nate Calamse traditional three-point play tipped off a 7-0 WSU run.

The Eagles clawed as close as…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/cougars-rain-3s-win-over-141100294.html

Author : Moscow-Pullman Daily News, Moscow, Idaho

Publish date : 2024-11-22 14:11:00

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