WSU Hoops Weekend: Both teams fall just short in early season tests

Both teams held leads in the late stages but couldn’t finish.

Over the weekend, both WSU’s men’s and women’s basketball teams hit the road to play a pair of power conference opponents.

The men flew out to Moline, Illinois, to face off with the Iowa Hawkeyes as part of the John Deere Quad City Hoops Showdown on Friday. WSU raced out to a lead as big as nine in the first half and took the lead with 3:26 remaining in the game, but Iowa closed the game with a 16-4 run to win 76-66.

Meanwhile, the women went to Lubbock, Texas, on Saturday for a date with the Red Raiders. The Cougs extended their lead out to seven to open the fourth quarter, but similar to the men, they just couldn’t close things out. The Red Raiders answered with an 11-0 run to take the lead back and fended off the Cougar comeback efforts for a 56-52 win.

Both Iowa and Texas Tech are formidable opponents that helped gauge where both WSU teams stand to open the year. Iowa is ranked 46th on KenPom, and Texas Tech sits at 58 on Barttorvik’s brand new women’s basketball metrics.

While the scoreboard says the men lost by 10, the game was a lot closer than the score indicates as Iowa tacked on their final 10 points at the free throw line in the final 72 seconds of the game. Ultimately, WSU’s failure to knock down their three-pointers doomed them. The Cougs only hit five of their 28 three-point attempts (18%) and only two of 15 in the second half (13%). It’s their worst performance from beyond the arc so far this season. With their high volume of three-point attempts, they were bound to run into a poor shooting night eventually. It just so happen to come against a good opponent who they still were able to battle tough.

Nate Calmese made up for the Cougars lack of treys by scoring a game-high 27 points on 12/22 shooting. Calmese used his speed to often blow by Hawkeye defenders to attack the rim.

Late foul trouble also disrupted the Cougar comeback efforts. 25 total personal fouls were called on WSU, and both Ethan Price and Dane Erikstrup fouled out. LeJuan Watts was also whistled for four personal fouls, but still recorded another double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds.

In Lubbock, the women’s team also struggled to hit their threes early, hitting just one of their nine first half attempts, but found their groove later on. After TTU’s momentum-stealing 11-0 run early in the final quarter, Jenna Villa played hero with a trio of treys to keep WSU in the game.

Trailing by two with 37 seconds to play, Ele Villa’s missed three was corralled by the Red Raiders, who iced the game with a short jumper to give the Red Raiders a four-point lead.

The men’s team will get right back to work on Monday against the Northern Colorado Bears and head up to Spokane to play the Eastern Washington Eagles on Thursday. The women’s team will have a week off, not playing until they travel to Iowa City to play the Iowa Hawkeyes on Sunday.