Cougars rain 3s in win over Eastern Washington

SPOKANE — Washington State’s Dane Erikstrup stood face-to-face with former teammate Sebastian Hartmann of Eastern Washington. Erikstrup spun around and pitched it to Isaiah Watts, who immediately got double-teamed as Hartmann peeled off to cover.

Watts leaned back and flung the ball to Erikstrup who sent his fifth triple of the night sailing through the Spokane Arena nylon with about 14 minutes left in the game.

Erikstrup posted 24 points and Cedric Coward and Watts scored 22 each to lead the Washington State Cougars to a 96-81 men’s basketball win over Eastern Washington in coach David Riley’s first game against his former team on Thursday at Spokane Arena.

Through a combination of six 3-pointers and an 8-for-14 clip from the field, Erikstrup eclipsed 20 points for the first time as a Coug and did it versus his former team.

“When I was butt naked, wide open, I just yelled for the ball and it came my way, and I was like, ‘Okay, it’s going in,’ so I let it fly,” Erikstrup said. “You know, you get in thousands of shots every week, so just to see it go in constantly and have a good shooting night, it was a fun game.”

Fifteen minutes of Washington State basketball

The Cougars and Eagles met for the first time since Riley took a handful of EWU assistants and four former Eags with him to tip off a new era of Wazzu basketball when he was hired in April.

The Cougars used a slew of dominating runs to establish a lead and keep it, although they held a 24-point advantage in the first and second halves and allowed Eastern to close the gap to around 15 each time.

Between Erikstrup’s six, Watts’ four, Coward’s three, Calmese’s two and LeJuan Watts’ one, the Cougs sank 16 3s.

The Cougs also posted 24 assists, the most since 2018. Coward connected on seven assists and Isaiah and LeJuan Watts (no relation) each dished out five.

EWU led by one point about 11 minutes into the game before a Nate Calamse traditional three-point play tipped off a 7-0 WSU run.

The Eagles clawed as close as four points at the 9:57 mark in the first half before Calmese sandwiched a dunk in between two blistering 3-pointers for a personal 8-0 run and Erikstrup followed up with two consecutive 3s to boost the Cougs to an 18-point advantage.

The Cougar lead climbed as high as 24 points following an Isaiah Watts 3-pointer, the Cougars’ eighth consecutive trey. Isaiah Watts said on Monday that the beginning of the season had tested him. He found his groove with a career-high 22 points on a 50% clip and four 3-pointers.

At the halftime break, the Cougars had made 60% of their 3-point shots.

“We played Washington State basketball for about 15 minutes,” Riley said. “Figured out a way to win after that.”

The Eags pulled a similar stunt in the second half, when Wazzu jumped out to another 24-point lead with 9:09 remaining, outscoring the Cougars 29-20 the rest of the way. Andrew Cook led the charge for the Eagles in the second half with 16 points and the Eagles made it a 15-point game when it was a 24-point game three minutes before the half.

Coward said that playing a full game’s worth of solid defense is something the Cougs have yet to harness.

“We’ve learned that we are such a good defensive team when we want to be,” Coward said. “I think that’s one thing that we still need to harness as a team is make sure we always want to be for 40 minutes. We didn’t show that tonight. I mean, we showed it a little bit in the first half, not at all in the second but over the past couple games, we’ve seen how good we can be.”

Cedric Coward’s hot start and simmering standard

The former EWU Eagle had a scorching day for his new team versus his former team.

Coward scored 22 points, drained three 3-pointers and added nine rebounds, seven assists, two blocks and a steal.

He scored 11 points in the first 11 minutes, including a blistering 3-for-3 mark from beyond the arc.

After scoring 13 combined points versus Idaho and Iowa, Coward posted 30 versus Northern Colorado on Monday and 22 on Thursday versus EWU.

“The beauty of it the last couple days is I have not had to challenge him,” Riley said. “That kid adjusts, he’s just a sponge. Whatever you talk to him on film he does the next day, and it’s really just a joy to coach him.”

A Spokane County homecoming

Riley’s Thursday encounter with his former school — which he attended, coached and led for 13 years — happened in Spokane Arena, about 18 miles northeast of EWU.

Riley took a handful of EWU assistants and four former Eags with him to tip off a new era of Wazzu basketball when he was hired in April.

The Eagles hired Dan Monson as their next head coach. The hire was a homecoming of sorts for Monson, too, who attended Moscow High School and University of Idaho when his dad, Don Monson, coached the Vandals. Dan Monson coached the Gonzaga Bulldogs in the late 90s.

Riley said he had a chance to say hi to his former players, as well as plenty of EWU staff members and familiar faces who defined his EWU tenure.

“There were so many people that helped me along the way from Eastern Washington,” Riley said. “I wouldn’t be where I am today. I wouldn’t have this team that we have without all the people that helped us. The school did so much for me, and so it was really cool to see everybody.”

EWU still had some players on its roster that Riley recruited like Hartmann, who started Thursday’s game with two 3-pointers, and Nic McClain, who led all scorers with 24 points.

“It’s a lot of love there. It’s been cool to see how well they’re playing,” Riley said. “We’ve got a bunch of gym rats who have been in the program, it’s cool to see that tradition carry on.”

Erikstrup, Coward, LeJuan Watts and Ethan Price transferred from EWU to WSU following the coach who recruited them.

“Once the ball got tipped, I knew it was basketball, (I knew it was) time to go,” Coward said. “You know, we know those guys. They know us. So there’s always going to be some sort of like relationship there. But playing, I really wasn’t affected by it.”

A defense in the works

While at Eastern, Riley’s teams were infamous for scorching hot offensive performances and dismaying defense concessions.

That trend seemed to have transferred to Wazzu along with Riley’s coaching staff and four former Eagles after the Cougs allowed Portland State to score 92 points in the season opener on Nov. 4, but Riley said the team is making a concerted effort to set a new standard.

Riley said he does not name team captains and instead expects his three seniors — Coward, Erikstrup and Price — to set the standard for each member of the team to lead.

“One through 14 just has to step up and be comfortable holding people accountable, and they also got to listen like when their teammates are talking to them. We got to be able to listen and absorb that,” Riley said. “If it’s going to be a player-led, program, it has to come from them. And we’ve shown how good we can be, but we don’t want to have the word potential hanging over our head.”

Riley’s Cougs will spend Thanksgiving week in Palm Beach, Calif., at the Acrisure Holiday Invitational.

WSU will play future Pac-12 foe Fresno State at 9 p.m. Tuesday. TruTV will broadcast the game.

E. WASHINGTON (1-4)

Marquardt 1-3 0-0 2, Cook 8-12 4-4 20, Hartmann 5-8 4-6 16, Powell 2-7 0-0 4, Stockton 2-2 1-1 5, McClain 9-22 6-9 24, Zanki 1-4 0-0 2, Thomas 2-4 0-0 5, Dziuba 1-3 1-2 3, Ngoyi 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 31-65 16-22 81.

WASHINGTON ST. (5-1)

Erikstrup 8-14 2-2 24, Price 0-0 0-0 0, L.Watts 2-4 1-2 6, Calmese 8-17 1-1 19, Coward 7-12 5-7 22, I.Watts 6-12 6-8 22, Okafor 1-1 1-2 3, Gerrits 0-3 0-0 0, Wynott 0-1 0-0 0, Thrastarson 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 32-64 16-22 96.

Halftime — Washington St. 51-36. 3-Point Goals — E. Washington 3-19 (Hartmann 2-4, Thomas 1-3, Cook 0-2, Marquardt 0-2, McClain 0-2, Powell 0-3, Zanki 0-3), Washington St. 16-30 (Erikstrup 6-8, I.Watts 4-7, Coward 3-5, Calmese 2-5, L.Watts 1-2, Wynott 0-1, Gerrits 0-2). Fouled Out — Price. Rebounds — E. Washington 25 (McClain 7), Washington St. 37 (Coward 9). Assists — E. Washington 11 (McClain 3), Washington St. 24 (Coward 7). Total Fouls — E. Washington 19, Washington St. 22. A — 3,854 (12,210).

Taylor can be reached at 208-848-2268, staylor@lmtribune.com or on X (formerly Twitter) @Sam_C_Taylor.