Santa Clara 93, WSU 65: Quick Recap

Sometimes you’re the bug, and sometimes you’re the windshield, and last night … the Cougs (15-6, 5-3 WCC) got splattered by the surging Broncos (14-7, 6-2) to fall a half game behind fourth place San Francisco.

The early part of the game was a neutral’s delight, as the teams traded haymakers from the 3-point line and got up and down the floor. Each time one team put some pressure on with a scoring run, the other team would answer. A 6-2 spurt by WSU gave the Cougars a five-point lead six minutes in, but a quick 10-0 response flipped that around for Santa Clara in the next two minutes; shortly thereafter, the Cougs responded with a 14-4 run of their own, fueled by a couple of Rihards Vavers 3s, to reclaim a three-point margin.

But there were warning signs of bad things to come, even as the Cougars hung around. Turnovers remained an issue, and the Broncos were both making things really uncomfortable for WSU offensively and collecting a lot of rebounds. And when Santa Clara got hot again from 3, the Cougs just didn’t have an answer: Over the final six minutes of the first half, Santa Clara outscored WSU 21-7 to take a 49-38 lead at the break. This included a crushing contested 3-pointer “from the logo” with just a couple of seconds left.

The Broncos never looked back, as the Cougars never really made a serious run at winning the game. They pulled within seven points in the first five minutes, but Santa Clara answered with a 5-0 spurt to pull it back to 12. Then, WSU hit a few buckets to take it from 15 to 8 … and Santa Clara went on a 10-0 run to put it to bed for good. Following a LeJuan Watts layup with 4:20 to play and the Cougs trailing by 16, WSU would score just three points on a few free throws as Santa Clara never let off the gas.

In A Minute

• Cougfan recap via Friend of the Podcast Jamey Vinnick

• Stats

• Line o’ the night: LeJuan Watts with a triple double — just the second in school history: 20 points (on just 10 FGA), 11 rebounds, 10 assists, as well as 2 steals and a block … plus 6 turnovers.

• One stat to tell the tale: WSU got killed on the glass, with the Broncos grabbing 47% of their own misses while only allowing the Cougars to collect 32% of their own.

Highlights

The school (not surprisingly) hasn’t bothered with a highlights package. If you’d like to listen to David Riley sound as depressed as you’ll ever hear him, here you go:

Three Thoughts

1. Too soft

When you lose by 28, of course there is a lot of blame to go around and a lot of things ripe for criticism. But I’m agreement with what Riley said in that postgame interview: The Cougars simply did not show enough fight.

“I think when you look at the game overall, the physicality … it was clear that Santa Clara won that game,” he said. “They punked us on the glass, they were they were tough, we weren't able to hold on the ball, they were getting up into us, and that wore us down. I think we had some some good runs in the first half, we some good runs in the second half, but we we weren't disciplined enough or tough enough.”

Being a little soft hasn’t been a persistent problem, but it’s also popped up enough that it’s a little disconcerting. With the notable exception of Watts, whose triple double is bound to be remembered in the weirdest way possible when it’s in a 28-point loss, the Cougs got bullied in just about every way imaginable: On the glass, with Santa Clara’s defense hounding WSU on every inch of the floor, and with the Broncos’ offense beating WSU to every spot. WSU was soft in chasing down balls, soft in holding onto the ball,¹ and soft mentally on defense where they were so often chasing their own shadow one pass behind the actual location of the ball.

“You look at our our rebounding in the first half, our big guys didn't show up,” he said. “I think we’ve got to just do a better job of, one through five … all the coaches … shoot, one through 14 … we’ve got to do a better job of getting our team ready and being more physical and ready for the fight.”

The good news is that WSU typically has responded to not-so-tough performances with renewed toughness.

2. As Nate goes …

We mentioned in an earlier newsletter that WSU’s offense has a tendency to go as point guard Nate Calmese goes, and … well … this is really where the game was lost, at least on offense:

Calmese gave away a very dumb turnover on the first possession, but unlike San Diego — where he recovered from a poor first half to power the team to victory — he never put it together in this one. He honestly just seemed out of sorts. I don’t know if it was the new hairstyle or if he was feeling under the weather (25 minutes were the fewest since playing 24 in the foul fest against San Francisco), but he wasn’t right.

3. Reinforcement!

These guys have been insanely shorthanded all year, and they got just a little bit of relief with the return of Vavers. If you don’t remember him, he’s a 6-7 wing with a nice shooting touch from deep and a quick release. He showed that off, hitting a couple of key shots from deep to help the Cougs maintain contact in the first half. It also allowed Riley to mix up his personnel — at one point, he went with a lineup where Watts was the shortest guy on the floor with Vavers, Kase Wynott, Ethan Price, and Dane Erikstrup. It didn’t work, but still … food for thought.

There was some hope that Isaiah Watts might have been ready for last night after practicing earlier in the week, but he still didn’t play. It would be nice to add him in on Saturday, for sure.

Up Next

Whatever hopes you still have for an NCAA at-large berth — they’re not on life support yet, but it’s trending that way — this game on Saturday against Saint Mary’s is critical, if only from the aspect of it having been quite a while since we’ve done anything to add to our resume.

Saint Mary’s is very good. As you saw above, they sit on top of the league, two games clear of everyone. They just got done eviscerating San Francisco. The Gaels are on an absolute roll, having won seven consecutive games, all by double digits — and only one by fewer than 20. It’s entirely possible at this point that they — not Gonzaga — are the best team in the WCC.

However, it’s worth noting: They’ve been beating up on some pretty awful teams, and the 20-point win over USF was at home. WSU is the toughest road team they’ve played since winning at Utah in early December.

Here’s to hoping Beasley is rocking for what would be a season-reviving win. Tip-off is scheduled for 5 p.m. PT on CBS Sports Network.

1  My ENTIRE KINGDOM for this team to actually use Triple Threat technique and squeeze the damn ball.