WSU men snap losing streak, women fall to Gonzaga in OT

The losing streak is over for the men, but the women suffer a hearbreaker.

Both the Washington State men’s and women’s teams were back in action on Saturday.

The men finally snapped their five-game losing streak on a game-winning block by Ethan Price to secure an 87-86 win over the Pepperdine Waves. The women’s team wasn’t as fortunate, losing a hard-fought game at Gonzaga 73-69 in overtime.

The men’s team led for all of 1:37 in the game and trailed by as much as 12 with 6:17 to go. But thanks to a late surge in the final two minutes, WSU was able to put together a 12-4 run, punctuated by a LeJuan Watts layup with 11 seconds to go. The Waves got the final shot, and as Stefan Todorovic tried to end his 30-point performance with a buzzer beating three, Price came flying in to swat the shot away and finally end WSU’s longest losing streak in three seasons.

An early slew of turnovers and fastbreak buckets allowed the Waves to race out in front to open the game. With the miscues piling up and the Waves refusing to miss on the offensive end, it looked like WSU was on their way to another miserable loss. Thankfully, WSU’s offense shot the ball well, with Dane Erikstrup scoring 13 in the first half on 5/11 shooting from the field.

Things really began to look bleak early in the second half as the Waves continued to torch WSU’s transition defense, scoring 10 of their first 19 points in the second half off fastbreaks. The Waves snowballed the momentum into a 12-point lead with 6:17 remaining. Price and Isaiah Watts cashed back-to-back threes to cut the lead in half and inject some life into the Beasley Coliseum crowd.

Isaiah Watts came up big again from downtown with another three to keep the deficit at four with two minutes remaining. While the Waves were able to answer with a trey of their own, WSU quickly answered with back-to-back layups to make it a one-possession game with under a minute to go.

The Waves found themselves on the free throw line, up three, with 42 seconds remaining. Boubacar Coulibaly missed both, setting WSU up with an opportunity to tie, and Isaiah Watts took advantage.

The Waves again got to the free throw line on their next possession and again couldn’t fully capitalize, only hitting one of their shots. Isaiah Watts tried to knock down another three to put WSU in front but couldn’t get it to fall. Todorovic came up with the rebound, and as WSU trapped him, Erikstrup was able to get his hands on the ball and force a jump ball, which gave WSU an extra possession with 14 seconds to go. LeJuan Watts put WSU in front for the first time in the second half with a little floater, and Price sealed the victory with a game-winning block as time expired on the other end.

It’s WSU’s first win since beating the Portland Pilots on January 8th.

Up in Spokane, the women’s team played a thriller against the rival Gonzaga Bulldogs but just couldn’t close it out. What started as a low-scoring rock fight quickly became a net-burning shootout in the second half.

From trading body blows in the form of defensive stops to trading haymakers in the form of three-pointer after three-pointer, it was all fireworks in the second half.

WSU missed their first seven three-pointers and began the game 2/13 from the field, then proceeded to hit six of their next seven shots from downtown and flip a nine-point deficit into an eight-point Cougar lead in the third quarter.

Unfortunately, shooting wasn’t just contagious to Cougs only. The Bulldogs also found their shot, hitting seven straight shots to tie the game at 53 all with 6:48 remaining. Dayana Mendes and Tara Wallack each knocked down big threes and even bigger free throws down the stretch to send the game to overtime.

Mendes and Ele Villa teamed up for a 5-0 run in overtime to put WSU up two with 2:43 to go, but it would be the last points the Cougars would score. WSU finally started to cool off at the wrong time, and the Bulldogs capitalized with a 6-0 run to ice the game away.

The women will look to rebound against LMU on Thursday while the men will get a full week off before heading to Saint Mary’s next Saturday.