Once again, the Washington State Cougars couldn’t hold onto a halftime lead and completely collapsed in the second half. In a game they needed to win to keep their hopes alive for that coveted four seed, they were outscored 43-27 in the second half by the Loyola Marymount Lions for a gut-punch 67-66 loss. The loss ends any chance of WSU getting an automatic spot in the WCC tournament quarterfinals.
If you hadn’t watched a game all year and wanted to know the story of this year’s WSU (12-18 overall, 7-10 in conference) team, this game summed it up. Well, at least the road version of this team. WSU hasn’t been that bad of a team at home. Barttorvik has a great tool on his site that allows you to look at the splits of a team’s offensive and defensive ranks at home and on the road. At home, WSU plays like a top 100 team according to Bart’s metrics. Away from the comforts of Beasley Coliseum (true road games or neutral sites), WSU is around 175th. Tonight was proof of that.
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While WSU didn’t exactly play a great first half, they still led by 15 at the halftime break. They turned the ball over nine times in the first 20 minutes, but the Lions couldn’t do much with those gifted possessions on the other end. They missed all 10 of their first-half three-point attempts and shot 28.6% overall from the field. When the Cougars weren’t turning the ball over, they were shooting the ball pretty well. Rihards Vavers led the way early with a trio of treys as the Cougars hit seven of their 13 three-point attempts.
But right on cue, the second half flipped the script for the road Cougars. The Lions opened with a 17-4 run to pull all the way to within two points. The closest they had been since the 15:23 mark in the first half. Myron Amey Jr. was the spark plug for the Lions, scoring 13 of those first 17 points for the Lions. WSU’s offense couldn’t get much going to respond. While they were able to put together some possessions to push the lead back out to six at two different points, most of their possessions were coming up empty. They missed their first three three-point attempts and turned it over eight times in total in the second half.
You could see the difference in composure and energy as the lead began to slip. Bad pass turnovers were met with confusing glares and disagreements from teammates while the Lions were roaring as they continued to chip into the deficit. The Cougars were yet again imploding.
While it may have taken most of the half to finally break through, the Lions finally stole the lead away on a pair of free throws with 1:32 remaining. Trailing by three, the Cougars had a chance to tie the game on a Vavers three-point attempt with nine seconds to go, but it missed, and LMU was able to ice the game away on a banked free throw from Rick Issanza. Ace Glass banked in a three-pointer to bring it within one, but only 0.2 seconds were left on the clock.
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Evaluating this game beforehand, it was always going to be a coin flip, so a loss isn’t too unexpected. But having a 15-point halftime lead and then losing? Well, I guess that is expected from what we have seen from this Cougars team. They’ll play one last regular season game on the road at Pepperdine on Saturday before they begin the WCC tournament next week.