Wazzu men open WCC play with dominant win in Portland

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Dec. 29—PORTLAND, Ore. — Ethan Price stood at the top of the key 12 seconds after Washington State won the opening tipoff and let his 3-point shot fly through the bottom of the net.

Price connected from deep again just two minutes later to give the WSU men’s basketball team the lead for good. Half a minute after that, all LeJuan Watts had to do was casually slip the ball behind him to Price, who made yet another wide-open 3-pointer from about the same spot.

The three quick offensive splashes from Price allowed WSU (11-3, 1-0) to build an early double-digit lead over Portland (5-9, 0-1) and beat the Pilots 89-73 in the Cougars’ inaugural West Coast Conference opener on Saturday at the Chiles Center in Portland.

Price paced the Cougs with 22 points and Nate Calmese added 18 as both players snagged seven rebounds and dished out five assists.

Each WSU starter posted double figures as Watts (14 points, eight rebounds) and senior forward Dane Erikstrup (11 points) boosted WSU to its sixth win in the last seven games, despite injuries to multiple players, including two starters. Forward ND Okafor provided 12 points off the bench.

Price sets the standard

Price made three 3-pointers within the game’s first two-and-a-half minutes. He also contributed eight of the Cougars’ 16 points in a four-minute span which saw WSU grow its lead from one to 15 by the 14:48 mark of the first half.

“Just reading the game. I think the early 3s I had, I was open, so I shot them,” Price said. “Put a lot of work in, and stayed ready and they went in.”

After scoring 11 points in the game’s first six minutes, Price finished with his game-high 22 points and seven rebounds, at one point taking more than half the Portland lineup with him on his way to a basket at the rim.

“He’s got, I think, 1,000 points, 500 rebounds, 200 assists,” WSU coach David Riley said. “Those are crazy numbers. Like, most of the time, that’s hanging in the rafters for having a career like that. (And) he’s not even done.”

Riley said…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/wazzu-men-open-wcc-play-131600939.html

Author : Lewiston Tribune, Idaho

Publish date : 2024-12-29 13:16:00

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