WSU 87, Pepperdine 86: Quick Recap

The Cougs snapped a depressing 5-game losing streak by snatching victory from the jaws of defeat against the Waves.

WSU struggled mightily on both ends of the floor for 38 minutes and 30 seconds, typified by the 3-pointer that Pepperdine’s Stefan Todorovic hit in Ethan Price’s grill with just 90 seconds to go in the game — his 28th, 29th, and 30th points of the game. It gave the Waves a 85-78 lead that seemed insurmountable for numerous reasons, most obviously because of the time remaining, but also because it would require WSU to score quickly and get some stops.

The first part of the equation came together quickly, as Nate Calmese blew by a weak double team above the arc to coast into the lane for an easy layup with just 10 seconds coming off the clock.

85-80, 1:19 remaining

Pepperdine’s Moe Odum — the true player of the game with 18 points, 11 assists and 7 rebounds — took a surprisingly quick floater 15 seconds into the shot clock that Dane Erikstrup rebounded. Less than 10 seconds later, Pepperdine again played inexplicably soft defense, allowing LeJuan Watts to bully his way to the rim for a nifty reverse layup.

85-82, 0:58 remaining

This time, Pepperdine got sloppy with the ball, and WSU capitalized on the turnover with a transition opportunity. But the helter-skelter sequence led to a rushed 3-pointer from Erikstrup, which he missed, resulting in a rebound and a foul for Pepperdine. Boubacar Coulibaly, the Waves’ worst free throw shooter, missed them both, and WSU had life once again. Erikstrup pump faked a 3 and handed the ball off to Isaiah Watts for a more open 3 coming to his left, which he buried — his fourth 3 of the game.

85-85, 0:28 remaining

Electing to pressure the backcourt inbound after a timeout, WSU trapped Zion Bethea near the baseline. He had nowhere to go, but LeJuan Watts couldn’t resist reaching, and a foul call sent Pepperdine to the line for a chance to take the lead. Bethea missed the first but hit the second.

85-86, 0:25 remaining

Back on the attack, LeJuan Watts posted up on the right block. Using an unorthodox spin back to the middle of the paint, he got a clean look in the lane that he finished with ease, giving the Cougars their first lead since 1:28 in the first half.

87-86, 0:11 remaining

Pepperdine would get one last crack at it out of a timeout, and there was little doubt who would get the ball — or what kind of shot he’d probably take. Todorovic inbounded the ball and, after a couple of handoff and a switch, got singled up on the wing with freshman Tomas Thrastarson. Using a pushoff that would make Michael Jordan blush¹ , Todorovic got free for a wide open long 2.

Or so he thought. In flew Ethan Price, who left his man to block the shot from the side, erasing the potential game winner and securing the win.

87-86, 0:00 remaining

In A Minute

• Spokesman-Review recap by Greg Woods

• Stats

• Line o’ the night: Isaiah Watts with 15 points on 5-of-10 shooting (4-of-6 from 3), 3 assists, 1 turnover, 1 block, 1 steal. (Although I could have gone with any of the five guys who scored in double figures.)

• One stat to tell the tale: WSU outscored Pepperdine 9-1 in the final 90 seconds.

Highlights

Standings

Three Thoughts

1. It takes a village

One thing you might have noticed from the quick recap is just how many names popped up in there. Every starter contributed significantly to the win in that final minute and a half, reminiscent of when this team was firing on all cylinders earlier in the season. The scoring load was balanced with all five starters scoring in double figures, and most of the rest of the stats were fairly balanced, too — five players had three or more rebounds and six players registered an assist.

2. Desperate times

Those final 90 seconds also involved WSU hitting a gear that they’ve struggled to find over these past few weeks. There have been a number of times during this losing streak where it’s just felt like the team wasn’t giving maximum effort. There can be a lot of reasons why it might look that way to a fan beyond “they’re just not trying hard enough” — disorganization can look that way, and David Riley said last week that the team has had the flu running rampant through the roster² .

That said, there was a very strong argument to be made yesterday for “they just aren’t trying hard enough” as the Waves got bucket after bucket on fastbreaks with just simple passes over the top. It was a dreadful lack of discipline and effort that has come to characterize the team during this losing streak.

But with just a minute and a half to go, it was like the Cougs finally realized what was on the line and started playing with the kind of energy that is required to win no matter how low the opponent is ranked on kenpom. Pepperdine played its own role in collapsing down the stretch, but the WSU energy and commitment certainly helped it along.

Can we play with that kind of intensity for closer to 40 minutes?

3. Trending up

For the second consecutive game, turnovers were thoroughly under control — the Cougars turned it over just 12 times, less than 15% of their possessions. In the last two games combined, they have 17 total turnovers; eight times this year, they’ve turned it over that many times or more in just a single game. They needed all of it to overcome a so-so shooting game that looks a lot better in the end because of the late-game flurry. Even just a few more turnovers would have made that end-of-game comeback impossible because they deficit would have been just too big.

Basically, all they’ve really done is virtually eliminate the very dumb turnovers, and that’s super awesome. However, we’ve seen this sort of thing before, for short stretches. I’m not willing to believe this is an issue that has been “solved,” but I am willing to believe that perhaps it’s under some level of reasonable control.

As a bonus, they also cleaned up the defensive glass yesterday! Pepperdine retrieved less than a quarter of their own misses, the lowest rate since Loyola Marymount on December 30.³  

Up Next: at Saint Mary’s

Finally, a bit of a break for the boys. For the last couple of weeks, the Cougars have taken on opponents coming off week-long breaks. WSU now gets one, with no mid-week game before traveling to Moraga, California, for a rematch the Gaels, who are no longer unbeaten in WCC play after losing at San Francisco this week.

If the flu really has been a problem, this should help.

Tipoff is at 7 p.m. PT with ESPN2 carrying the broadcast.

1  I would love to take credit for this, but Craig said it in a group chat. So, I’m stealing it!

2  As a 47-year-old out of shape guy trying to kick sickness that is going on a week and caused me to stay home from work for a day this week, I will not dismiss this out of hand.

3  What’s that you say? Pepperdine is one of the worst offensive rebounding teams in the country and doesn’t even really try to go get them? LA LA LA LA CAN’T HEAR YOOOOOOOUUUUUU