Washington State slogged through a long stretch of poor offense against San Diego on Thursday night, trying to find any way to snap a dry spell. The Cougars couldn’t stop turning it over, and even as their defense stepped up, they needed baskets to avoid a costly loss. Guard Nate Calmese provided just that in WSU’s 65-61 win over San Diego, scoring five of his 27 points in the final moments to propel the Cougars across the finish line, including a go-ahead three-pointer and a driving layup with 19 seconds left. He also sank all four of his free throws in the last minute, sewing up the victory and ending a two-game losing streak.
“They’re understanding how hard it is to win, especially on the road,” WSU coach David Riley said in a postgame radio interview. “So there’s a lot to take from this. We kind of had a rough game last week versus Pacific. We didn’t play the right way. I’d say it was very similar to this game. But the beauty of it is we found a way to win today, so that’s growth.”
The Cougars (14-5, 4-2 WCC) hit 5 of 6 free throws to put the game away, avoiding what would have been a costly Quad 4 loss. With one of those already on their resume — a home setback to Pacific last week — the Cougs couldn’t afford another to maintain a shot at an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.
WSU women win at San Francisco
The Washington State women built a 17-point lead after the first quarter and rode an exceptional first half to a 74-58 road win at San Francisco.
Tara Wallack led Washington State (11-8, 6-2 WCC) with a team-high 16 points.
The opinions expressed in reader comments are those of the author only and do not reflect the opinions of The Seattle Times.