In second clash with first-place Saint Mary’s, WSU hopes Isaiah Watts’ return will pay dividends

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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…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/second-clash-first-place-saint-045900926.html

Author : The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash.

Publish date : 2025-02-15 04:59:00

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