WASHINGTON STATE COUGARS (15-7, 5-4) at PACIFIC TIGERS (6-17, 1-8)

THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 2025
7 p.m. PT (10 p.m. ET)
Stockton, Calif.
Alex G. Spanos Center
Capacity: 5,634

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

TELEVISION or STREAMING
ESPN+
Play-by-Play: Zack Bayrouty
Analyst: Don Gubbins

OPENING TIPS
1. Washington State travels to Stockton, seeking revenge for a 94-95 overtime defeat at the hands of the Tigers in Pullman, Jan. 9. Pacific's Lamar Washington delivered a 40-point performance for the Tigers. The meeting Thursday, Jan. 30 at 7 p.m., marks the inaugural road game in the series and just the second meeting between the programs.
2. LeJuan Watts became the second Coug in program history to record a triple-double, scoring 20 points with 11 rebounds and a career-high 10 assists at Santa Clara, Jan. 23. Watts' triple-double was the first of his career, the second all-time at WSU after Kyle Weaver's 14-pt, 13-rbd, 10-ast performance at Stanford, Jan. 13, 2007.
3. WSU ranks top-25 in the country in five team categories: 10th in 2-point FG% (.590), 12th in FG% (.495), 14th in effective FG% (.571), 25th in blocks per game (5.0), and 25th in assists per game (17.0). Individually, Nate Calmese ranks 15th nationally with 148 field goals and 27th with 45 steals.
4. Nate Calmese leads WSU's active roster with 16.6 points, 4.5 assists, and 2.0 steals per game. The junior transfer leads the WCC in steals, sits sixth in scoring, and sixth in assists per game.
5. WSU and SMC combined to shoot 57.4% (58-of-101) from the floor, Jan. 25, leading to just 42 combined rebounds. WSU's 18 rebounds marked its fewest since Jan. 12, 2008 against UCLA.

LAST TIME OUT
The Cougars lost to Saint Mary's, 75-80, Saturday night at Beasley Coliseum in the teams' first meeting this seaosn. Ethan Price led the team in scoring with 20 points, his fourth of WCC play, along with three triples. Dane Erikstrup had 16 points with three rebounds and two assists. Nate Calmese scored 16 and LeJuan Watts had 14 with team-high six assists. Wazzu led the Gaels for 30 minutes before a 20-5 run gave SMC the edge with 10 minutes to play. WSU recorded a season-low 18 rebounds, its fewest since the 2006-07 season.

LAST TIME VS PACIFIC
The Cougars' overtime comeback fell short against the Pacific Tigers, 95-94, Thursday night, suffering their first conference and first home loss of the season. WSU trailed for the majority of the game, forcing overtime with a LeJuan Watts putback dunk and took its largest lead of the game in the overtime period. With Pacific trailing by two with two seconds remaining in the extra frame, Lamar Washington made a corner three with no time remaining to clinch the win. Ethan Price scored a career high 28 points along with grabbing eight rebounds, his third game with 20+ points in the last four. LeJuan Watts scored 16 with eight rebounds.

PICK YOUR POISON
The Cougars have distributed scoring across the majority of the playing rotation with four active players averaging 10+ points through 22 games. At least four Cougs have scored in double figures 13 times, while six different individuals have tallied 20-point performances. Nate Calmese sits sixth in the conference in scoring and LeJuan Watts ranks sixth 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 13-3 record when tallying 15+ assists, most recently suffering just its third loss with 19 assists at Santa Clara. In contrast, the Cougs are 2-4 when delivering fewer than 15 assists, falling to Saint Mary's, Jan. 25 with 13 assists.

UP NEXT
The Cougars make the return trip to San Francisco after beating the Dons in Pullman, Jan. 4, 91-82. USF previously hosted Washington State on two occassions, but never as a conference member. Wazzu traveled to San Francisco in March 2012, defeating the Dons in the College Basketball Invitational at War Memorial Gym. The Cougars are 3-0 all-time against USF.

RIM PROTECTORS
The Cougar team leads the WCC and ranks 25th in the country with 5.0 blocked shots per game. WSU boasts two of the top 10 shot blockers in the conference with Okafor at third (1.4) and Erikstrup at eighth (1.0). As a team, WSU has swatted away a league-best 111 shot attempts, 27 more than the next-closest WCC team.

ROAD TO RECOVERY?
Sophomore Rihards Vavers returned to action at Santa Clara, Jan. 23, for just his third game action and first since Dec. 2, after separate hand injuries in nonconference play. Isaiah Watts suffered a hand injury at Washington, Dec. 18, and is on a day-to-day timeline to return. Coach David Riley confirmed in nonconference 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.

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 10th nationally in 2-point FG percentage.

FLOOR GENERAL CALMESE
Nate Calmese leads the Cougars in scoring, steals, and assists. The junior leads the WCC in steals (2.0) and sits top-10 in the league in scoring (sixth) and assists (sixth). Calmese 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 2.0 per game (+67%), and rebounds from 2.5 to 3.3 per game (+32%).

'JUAN, TWO, THREE
Coach Riley prophesied LeJuan Watts as a triple-double threat, which rang true with the sophomore's first-career triple-double and just the second triple-double in program history, Jan. 23, at Santa Clara. Watts delivered his third 20-point game, to go with 11 rebounds, and a career-high 10 assists. Kyle Weaver tallied the first triple-double in WSU history, Jan. 13, 2007 with 14 points, 13 rebounds, and 10 assists. Watts has led the Cougs in rebounding 15 times and ranks sixth in the WCC with 7.7 rebounds per game.

THE PRICE IS RIGHT
Ethan Price, a senior transfer from Eastern Washington, has started all 122 games of his career for Coach Riley. 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.

EFFICIENT IN THE ARC
WSU boasts the top 2-point percentage and effective FG percentage in the WCC. The Cougs' 2-point percentage of 59.0% ranks 10th nationally, while their effective FG% of .571 ranks 14th in Division-I as of Jan. 29. 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).

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 80.5 points per game, third in the WCC behind Gonzaga and 47th nationally. WSU is 5-5 when being held under 80 points. By contrast, the Cougs are 10-1 when scoring at least 80 points.

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 three times, averaging 7.6 ppg 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 6.0 rebounds per game.

OKAFOR BACK ON THE FLOOR
Redshirt-sophomore 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 third in the WCC with 1.4 blocks per game, recording at least one block in 17 of 20 games played. In the Nov. 15 game against Iowa, Okafor pulled in five boards to eclipse 100 career rebounds. Okafor has twice matched his season-high in WCC play, scoring 12 points in both meetings with Portland.

'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 Washington.