PORTLAND PILOTS (6-13, 1-5) at WASHINGTON STATE COUGARS (14-5, 4-2)

SATURDAY, JANUARY 18, 2025
3:02 p.m. PT (6:02 p.m. ET)
Pullman, Washington
Beasley Coliseum
Capacity: 11,671

COUGAR RADIO NETWORK
KXLY 920AM // KHTR 104.3FM
KTTH 770AM // KONA 610AM
Play-by-Play: Chris King
Analyst: Craig Ehlo

TELEVISION & STREAMING
ESPN+
Play-by-Play: Trevor Williams
Analyst: P.J. Carlesimo
Producer: Jason Armenio

OPENING TIPS
1. WSU hosts Portland for the return trip after beginning WCC play with an 89-73 win against the Pilots, Dec. 28, at the Chiles Center. The Cougars hold a 13-2 all-time record against Portland and have won seven-straight against the Pilots. Wazzu has never lost to Portland in Pullman, holding an 8-0 record.
2. Coach David Riley has WSU off to its best start since 2009-10 and tied for the second-best start by a first-year head coach in program history. Riley is the third Wazzu coach to start with at least 14 wins in 19 games.
3. WSU ranks top-35 in the country in five team categories: 17th in 2-point FG% (.586), 21st in blocks per game (5.2), 22nd in effective FG% (.569), 22nd in FG% (.491), and 32nd in assists per game (17.1). Individually, Nate Calmese ranks 12th nationally with 129 field goals and 28th with 39 steals.
4. Nate Calmese leads WSU's active roster with 17.0 points, 4.5 assists, and 2.1 steals per game. The junior transfer sits second in the WCC in steals, fifth in scoring, and sixth in assists per game.
5. Dane Erikstrup has dominated the glass since WCC play started, tallying his first WSU double-double with 12 points and a season-high 10 rebounds at USD, Jan. 16. The senior is averaging 7.2 rpgin WCC and led on the glass the last two games.

LAST TIME OUT
WSU defeated San Diego, 65-61, Thursday night at Jenny Craig Pavilion, to improve to 4-2 in WCC play. Nate Calmese finished with a season-high 27 points. After a quiet first half, Calmese erupted for 22 second-half points. Dane Erikstrup added 12 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for his first double-double as a Coug and a rebounding career-high against a D-I opponent. Wazzu came on an 18-2 run from tipoff. However, San Diego fought back and closed the first half on a 9-0 run to take a halftime lead. The Cougars battled through poor shooting to put together an 8-0 run in the final two minutes and secure the win.

LAST TIME AGAINST PORTLAND
Washington State defeated the Portland Pilots, 89-73, Saturday evening at Chiles Center in WSU's inaugural WCC game. Five Cougars scored in double figures, led by Ethan Price with a season-high 22 points to lead the Cougars, adding seven rebounds and five assists. LeJuan Watts had a game-high eight rebounds with 14 points. Nate Calmese added 18 points, five assists, and seven rebounds. Dane Erikstrup scored 11 points and ND Okafor matched a season-high with 12 points. Wazzu matched a season-high with 24 assists and shot a season-high 56% from 3-point range (14-of-25) The Cougars are 11-0 with 15+ assists and 7-0 when scoring at least 80 points.

PICK YOUR POISON
The Cougars have distributed scoring across the majority of the playing rotation with four active players averaging 10+ points through 19 games. At least four Cougs have scored in double figures 11 times, while six different individuals have tallied 20-point performances. Nate Calmese sits fifth in the conference in scoring and LeJuan Watts ranks fifth in the WCC in rebounding.

SHARING THE ROCK
The Cougs dished out 24 assists in the win over Portland, Dec. 28, matching the season-high with the most single-game assists in six seasons. WSU boasts a 12-2 record when tallying 15+ assists, most recently suffering its second loss with 20 assists in the loss at Gonzaga. In contrast, the Cougs are 2-3 when delivering fewer than 15 assists, securing their second win with 13 assists at San Diego, Jan. 16.

UP NEXT
Washington State travels to the Bay Area to face Santa Clara for the first half of the season series in a nationally-televised contest on CBS Sports Network. The Cougars played the Broncos last season in a nonconference neutral-site clash at Phoenix's Footprint Center, falling 61-69, in the Jerry Colangelo Classic. WSU holds the all-time series advantage 6-4 and last played at Santa Clara, Nov. 12, 2019, losing to the Broncos, 62-70. SCU has held the recent edge, winning three of the last four contests, dating back to 2018.

RIM PROTECTORS
The Cougar team leads the WCC and ranks 21st in the country with 5.2 blocked shots per game. WSU boasts two of the top 10 shot blockers in the conference with Okafor at second (1.5) and Erikstrup at eighth (1.1). As a team, WSU has swatted away a league-best 99 shot attempts, 22 more than the next-closest WCC team.

INJURY BUG BITES
Coach David Riley confirmed in December the successful shoulder surgeries of senior Cedric Coward and freshman Marcus Wilson, both of whom will miss the remainder of the 2024-25 season on 4-6 month recovery timelines. Sophomore Rihards Vavers is out indefinitely, likely for the season, with broken bones in both hands. Isaiah Watts suffered a hand injury against Washington, Dec. 18, and will miss several weeks. Riley stated in a press conference he hoped to have Isaiah back by the end of January. Since Dec. 18, the Cougs have operated with eight healthy players in rotation, plus a redshirt (Vukicevic) and a preferred walk-on (Sessoms).

DIFFERENT KINDA COUGS
WSU is built different this season, regularly playing with four or all five men around the perimeter, a different look from the 2023-24 Cougs, which played with two bigs inside most nights. The change has results in higher field goal percentages everywhere on the court, including a larger portion of points coming from beyond the arc and more efficiency around the rim. The Cougars rank 17th nationally in 2-point FG percentage.

THE PRICE IS RIGHT
Ethan Price, a senior transfer from Eastern Washington, has started all 119 games of his career for Coach Riley. Since WCC play began, Price has delivered three 20-point performances. The Englishman delivered a career-high 28 points, Jan. 9, against Pacific, with a career-high six 3-pointers. Price surpassed 1,000 career points during his junior season with the Eagles. Early this season, Price dished out his 200th career assist and the senior most recently surpassed 500 career rebounds to become the first Cougar player since Kyle Weaver (2004-08) to record at least 1,000 points, 500 rebounds, and 200 career assists.

FLOOR GENERAL CALMESE
Nate Calmese, who began his college career as the Southland Conference Freshman of the Year at Lamar, has seen all his ballhandling statistics improve over three seasons, including increases in assists from 2.0 to 4.5 per game (+125%); steals from 1.2 to 2.1 per game (+75%), and rebounds from 2.5 to 3.3 per game (+32%).

TRIPLE-DOUBLE THREAT
Coach Riley has describe LeJuan Watts as a consistent triple-double threat. The sophomore standout got the closest he's been as a Coug with eight points, 11 rebounds, and career-high eight assists in the Dec. 30 win over LMU. It was the most complete performance since Kyle Weaver delivered the only triple-double in WSU history, Jan. 13, 2007 with 14 points, 13 rebounds, and 10 assists. LeJuan Watts notched his sixth double-double, Jan. 4, against San Francisco with a career-high 24 points and team-high 12 rebounds. Watts has led the Cougs in rebounding 13 times and ranks fifth in the WCC with 7.9 rebounds per game.

EFFICIENT IN THE ARC
In the Nov. 18 win over Northern Colorado, the Cougars shot 76.7% from 2-point range, the highest single-game 2-point percentage by a Wazzu team since December 9, 2007, when the Cougs shot 76.7% from inside the arc against Portland State (26-40). WSU boasts the top 2-point percentage and effective FG percentage in the WCC. The Cougs' 2-point percentage of 58.6% ranks 17th nationally, while their effective FG% of .569 ranks 22nd in Division-I as of Jan. 17.

NONCONFERENCE SUCCESS
The Cougars concluded the nonconference schedule at 10-3, earning 10 nonconference wins for the first time since 2010-11, a group that ultimately reached the NIT semifinals with junior Klay Thompson. Coach David Riley became the first WSU first-year head coach since Ken Bone in 2009-10 to win 13 of his first 17 games. Riley became the third coach in Coug history to start 13-5 or better in his first season on the Palouse.

TINKERING WITH TEMPO
The Cougs are averaging 81.0 points per game, second in the WCC behind Gonzaga, and are 12-3 when scoring over 70 points. WSU got only its second win when being held under 70 points in a 65-61 mudfight at San Diego, Jan. 16.

TOMAS TEASES TALENT
With a short bench, true freshman Tomas Thrastarson made his first career start against Northern Iowa, Dec. 21, and has held the starting spot ever since. The Icelandic native delivered a season-high 17 points and six rebounds in the WCC home opener against LMU, Dec. 30. The freshman has gone on to score in double figures in three of the last five games, averaging 9.0 in WCC play.

ERIKSTRUP EXCELLENCE
Dane Erikstrup has started every game as a Coug and scored a WSU career-high 24 points in WSU's win over his former team Eastern Washington, Nov. 21. Erikstrup made a homecoming in the Cougars' inaugural WCC game, playing his 80th career Division-I game at Portland, Dec. 28. Since WCC play began, Erikstrup has delivered career-highs in rebounding three times, including his first Cougar double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds in the win at San Diego. In conference play, the senior is averaging 7.2 rebounds per game.

OKAFOR BACK ON THE FLOOR
Junior ND Okafor, a transfer from California, played his first minutes as a Coug in the Nov. 11 win over Idaho. Okafor missed the first two games due to concussion protocol. In his Cougar debut, Okafor delivered a career-high 12 points, with six rebounds, a block, and a steal. Okafor ranks second in the WCC with 1.6 blocks per game, recording at least one block in 15 of 16 games played. In the Nov. 15 game against Iowa, Okafor pulled in five boards to eclipse 100 career rebounds. Against Fresno State, Okafor rejected a career-high three shots, and has established himself as the Cougs' premier rim protector. Okafor matched his season-high in the WCC opener at Portland, scoring 12 points.

'ZAY SETTLED AS A STARTER
Isaiah Watts, the only returning letterwinner from the 2023-24 roster, is on pace to quadruple his scoring, rebounding, assists, and steals output from his freshman season. In 10 games, the West Seattle sophomore  eclipsed his freshman season totals in points, rebounding, steals, and assists. Three times Isaiah has surpassed 20 points, including a career-high 22 points against Eastern Wash. Zay made his first career start in place of an injured Cedric Coward, Nov. 26, grabbing a career-high five steals and remained in the starting lineup until an injury in his non-shooting hand against UW that will sideline him for several weeks.