Despite cleaning up the turnover issue, WSU still found another way to lose.
The Washington State Cougars midseason slide continues after a fifth straight loss on Thursday night, losing to the Oregon State Beavers 82-74.
WSU (15-10, 5-7 in confrence) yet again raced out to an early lead and stayed within striking distance heading into the final minutes, but couldn’t score over the final 2:45, allowing OSU (17-7, 7-4) to remain undefeated at home.
Despite turnovers being a major issue all season long—especially during this losing streak—the Cougars only turned the ball over five times. Their lowest turnover rate of the season. Yet, despite the efforts to clean up their giveaways, WSU still remained their own worst enemy. The Cougars committed 29 personal fouls, giving the Beavers a whopping 38 shots from the free throw line. And when WSU wasn’t committing fouls, they were allowing OSU to beat them on the glass, with OSU grabbing 47.8% of their misses for offensive rebounds and outrebounding the Cougs in total 36-19.
The Beavers scored 37% of their 82 points from the charity stripe alone. Now the refereeing was by no means perfect, but the refs didn’t just call 29 phantom fouls. WSU committed an overwhelming amount of dumb fouls. Not only did these fouls put OSU on the stripe 38 times, but WSU was also forced to play with multiple players in foul trouble for most of the second half. Four WSU players finished with four fouls, and Dane Erikstrup fouled out with over nine minutes remaining in the game. In just the first three minutes of the second half, WSU was whistled for six personal fouls and one technical foul given out to LeJuan Watts.
This team continues to be its own worst enemy. Again, they looked the part of being the better team early on but couldn’t get out of their own way down the stretch. The Cougars jumped out to a 9-1 lead behind an early five points from Ethan Price. Then some early fouls allowed OSU to get back in front, but WSU still never allowed them to build a lead bigger than four in the first 20 minutes. Nate Calmese, who was battling an illness last weekend, looked much healthier after five days off to rest up. Calmese sliced his way to the rim on multiple occasions, scoring 15 points on 7/10 shooting in the first half to give WSU a lead entering halftime.
But in the second half, WSU not only played their opponent but also played against themselves. Again, the refs weren’t perfect, but when are they ever? They’re going to miss some calls, and it’s easy to sit at home with your crimson on and say, “We’re just getting screwed!” but WSU was committing some really dumb and obvious fouls. I mean, 25 free throw attempts in the second half isn’t all just on some questionable calls. And on possessions, when they didn’t bump or hit a Beaver and actually forced a bad shot attempt, they could hardly box any of them out. The Beavers outnumbered WSU 21-9 in the second half and hauled in six offensive rebounds, good for nine second-chance points.
WSU did show plenty of fight, not allowing the frustration to take over and letting the game get out of hand. Despite OSU living on the free-throw line, WSU was within a point with 4:06 to go. Ultimately, OSU had an answer for every WSU momentum swing down the stretch and WSU couldn’t get the shots they needed to fall.
The Cougars will finally return to Beasley Coliseum on Saturday for the first time in 14 days and have a great chance to snap this losing streak against Pepperdine.