Feb. 14—PULLMAN — David Riley may not enjoy the film of Washington State’s last game against Saint Mary’s, an 80-75 setback on Jan. 25, but he’s learned a lot from it.
As the game entered crunch time, with the Cougars trying to stay afloat in time for a comeback, the Gaels stayed in front in large part by scoring via isolation plays.
As the game wound down, WSU couldn’t quite catch the Gaels.
On the bench sat one of the Cougars who could have made a difference on defense: sophomore guard Isaiah Watts, sitting out with a hand injury.
Watts returned to action one game later, which means he’ll be suiting up for the second and final regular-season game for WSU and Saint Mary’s on Saturday in Moraga, California.
It’s a critical moment for the Cougars, who enter seventh in the West Coast Conference standings, trying to vault to sixth or better to skip the first two days of next month’s conference tournament.
“I think it’s a big week for us going down the stretch, to fill a couple holes in our foundation and get back to being the defensive team that we were to start the year off,” Riley said.
“We’re gonna get that down the stretch, and that’s kind of our mindset right now, focusing on us these next few days, and then, obviously later in the week, we’ll get prepped for Saint Mary’s.”
WSU (16-10, 6-7 WCC) is coming off a home win over Pepperdine, a game the Cougs trailed for nearly 37 minutes. Not until they closed the game on a 9-1 run did they take the lead for good. Down as many as 12 points, the deficit WSU faced with a shade over six minutes to play, the hosts came roaring back.
That was the end of a five-game losing streak for WSU, which suffered combinations of turnovers, porous defense and undisciplined play in its previous five outings.
The Cougars’ defense against the Waves wasn’t perfect — guard Stefan Todorovic scored 30 points for Pepperdine, which shot 48% for the game — but it shored up when it mattered most.
First-place Saint Mary’s (22-4, 12-1) followed a loss last week to San Francisco with two straight victories.
The return of Watts could provide the kind of perimeter defense the Cougars lacked down the stretch against the Gaels in Pullman.
“I think that’ll help a lot,” Riley said.
After turning in back-to-back eight-point outings in his first two games back from injury, Watts is also starting to find his groove on offense.
In WSU’s 82-74 loss to Oregon State on Feb. 6, he scored 11 points with three key 3-pointers.
Against Pepperdine, he hit four 3-pointers and scored 17 points, his most since mid-December. It’s clear Watts is beginning to return to form.
WSU needs his production. When he was out, the Cougars’ only real ball-handler and shot-creator was point guard Nate Calmese, who scored 25 points against Oregon State and 16 against Pepperdine. But with Watts back in the fold, they can enjoy some more options on offense.
It’s beginning to pay dividends. Against OSU, WSU had only five turnovers, by far its fewest all season.
Against Pepperdine, that number rose to 12, but that’s still an improvement after averaging 14.7 turnovers per game, No. 342 nationally.
Whether the Cougars keep that going against the Gaels might be in their court. But Riley sounds more concerned with WSU’s defense, which was undone by the Gaels’ experienced players, who had nearly perfect execution in crunch time to beat WSU. It was a learning experience for Riley, who is coaching his first year in the WCC. Saint Mary’s head coach Randy Bennett is coaching his 24th.
“What makes Saint Mary’s special is their discipline,” Riley said. “They’re not gonna throw a million different looks at you defensively.
“I think what they do is try to do a better job of what they do, and they throw a couple tweaks in there.
“For us, it’s kind of the same thing. But on the flip side, we just need to play with pace and play with second actions. We can make them have to hard-hedge two ball screens, have to guard twice in the post.
“I think that’s where they have to move around a little bit more. We have to do a better job of finding a second action.”
