Nevada pulled away from Washington State, dominating the second half and winning 78–64. A sparse Beasley Coliseum crowd watched the Cougs peter out after halftime, falling to 3–7 on the year.
Coming off a heartbreaking 64–60 loss to the Bradley Braves in Illinois, Washington State looked to continue turning the corner on defense and finish a game strong.
The game started at a similar pace to the last one, with a 2–2 score at the first media timeout. The Cougars’ defensive intensity and physicality
has been noticeably improved.
Early on, the Cougs’ defense showed up, but the three-point shooting did not. Washington State started an abysmal 1-for-8 from three, most of which were open looks. Ace Glass specifically was 0-for-3 from deep and had a floater roll off the rim, but overall WSU was generating good looks.
Then the refs decided to get involved, as both teams were in the bonus with five minutes to go in the half.
Tomas Thrástarson was very confident in the first half, with a pair of really nice and-1’s on back-to-back possessions. Thrástarson was 5-for-7 from the floor in the first half.
The Cougs’ defense looked really stout in the first half; they just weren’t making open shots, and Ace couldn’t buy a bucket. At one point, Washington State had a four-minute drought from the floor.
The Cougs led 32–31 at the half as both teams started to make some threes down the stretch.
Nevada came out hot offensively out of the break, taking its largest lead of the game, 45–39, with 15 to go.
Then, all of a sudden, Nevada couldn’t miss from downtown, and the Wolf Pack were up 11. They went on a 5-for-7 stretch from deep and finished 50% from three after making only three total in the first half.
Ace Glass finally got going, hitting a sidestep three, but Nevada immediately grabbed an offensive board (they had 14) and banked in a three-pointer. That was pretty much the game, as Washington State wasn’t able to climb within 10 points again.
Glass finished 3-for-14 from the floor and 2-for-8 from three with three turnovers—easily his worst game since becoming a starter.
The Washington State offense completely imploded in the second half, looking entirely disjointed as Nevada calmly pulled away.
The turnovers weren’t as bad as in the Bradley game, with WSU coughing up the ball 14 times. But when they did? Boy, was it ugly.
Nevada was without its leading scorer, Corey Camper Jr. (15.9 ppg), and a WSU team that looked like it might be turning the corner as a unit instead looked completely lost again for almost an entire half.
David Riley is going to have some serious questions to answer. This team isn’t the most talented, but it certainly has more pieces than some of the leaner Ernie Kent years or even some of the early Kyle Smith teams.
ND Okafor had only three field-goal attempts against an undersized front-court that was in foul trouble midway through the second half. Defensively, they are constantly out of position, helping to the wrong side, and giving up open looks off offensive rebounds. The turnovers they commit are high-school-level errors—and that might be generous.
Since starting 13–3 last season, Washington State is 9–22. The buzzer-beater loss to Pacific in overtime seems to have changed the trajectory of Riley’s tenure.
Thankfully, the Cougs have a week off before heading down to Los Angeles to take on former Pac-12 foe USC. Washington State will face the 8–1 Trojans next Sunday at 4:30 p.m. on FS1.
