Not the start to the weekend WSU wanted.
Both the Washington State Cougars men’s and women’s basketball teams were in action on Thursday night and both suffered key losses.
The men fell to the Santa Clara Broncos 93-65 in Santa Clara and the women lost 83-65 to the Portland Pilots in Pullman.
Both teams — while underdogs — entered Thursday with a great chance to separate themselves in the WCC standings with victories, but instead, each took their third conference loss on the season. The men fell to 15-6 overall and 5-3 in the conference, putting them currently in a tie with Oregon State for fifth in the WCC. The women dropped to 12-9 overall and 7-3 in conference play, putting them in fourth.
LeJuan Watts did make WSU history in the loss. Watts became the second player in program history to record a triple-double, scoring 20 points, dishing out 11 assists and grabbing 10 rebounds. Kyle Weaver in 2007 was the last time a WSU men’s player recorded a triple-double.
“I thought he had a good game of playing with pace. We talked about it, I thought he had some good stuff in the second half of the Portland game and was able to build on that and when he’s playing with pace and getting downhill, he’s a monster. He looks like Magic Johnson out there. We got to fix the turnovers, but pretty impressive game for LeJuan.” David Riley said.
WSU did get sophomore Rihards Vavers back after he missed the past 11 games. Vavers scored 11 points, cashing a trio of triples.
The women’s team hung close with the Pilots through the first half, but the Pilots separated in the third quarter, building a lead as big as 16. Though the Cougs fought back to make it a single-digit deficit entering the fourth, Portland outscored WSU 24-15 in the final 10 minutes to grab the win.
Redshirt freshman Candace Kpetikou set a new career high with 12 points off the bench.
Both teams will look to get back on track on Saturday with the women’s team traveling to Loyola Marymount and the men hosting Saint Mary’s at 5 p.m.