
Last week, the Washington State men's basketball team grabbed a win over the Pacific Tigers, which seemed to steady the ship a bit after a 30-point loss to Gonzaga. However, they ran into another exceptional West Coast Conference opponent on Saturday night, which handed the Cougars yet another loss.
Washington State hosted Saint Mary's on Saturday and fell by a final score of 83-67. It was a brutal way to spend Senior Night for Cougs fans, as the program honored Simon Hildebrandt and Adria Rodriguez, both of whom are wrapping their first and final season with WSU.
In Saturday's game, ND Okafor and Ace Glass tied for the team lead in scoring with 15 points each. Rodriguez again delivered a well-rounded effort with seven points, six assists, two rebounds, and two steals.
Rihards Vavers also scored 12 points, marking his ninth consecutive game with at-least ten points, while leading the team with six rebounds. Vavers has now led the team in rebounds on four different occasions.
In the first half, Joshua Dent set the tone for St. Mary's with 17 points, including three makes from beyond the three-point line. However, WSU seemed determined to keep pace, which they did with seven three-pointers of their own. The Gaels outmuscled WSU inside, for the most part, grabbing six more rebounds and converting seven second-chance points. The Cougars had no second-chance points of their own in the first half. St. Mary's had a narrow 40-39 lead after the opening 20 minutes.
The Gaels pulled away in the second half as WSU's shooting went mostly cold. WSU missed all seven of their three-point attempts in the second half. Overall, the Cougars shot 33.3 percent in the second half. Mikey Lewis and Paulius Murauskas scored 12 points each in the second half for SMC, as the Gaels saw their lead stretch to 19 points at one point. SMC outscored the Cougars 43-28 in the second half.
Overall, SMC finished the contest with a 38-25 rebounding advantage and a field goal percentage of 54 percent.
The loss drops Washington State to 12-17 on the season with a record of 7-9 in conference play. David Riley's group have two regular season contests remaining, both in Southern California. They'll play at Loyola Marymount on Wednesday, February 25 and at Pepperdine on Saturday, February 28.
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