Turnovers and fouls plague WSU in 300th meeting against UW, falling 89-73

An early start was slowed by a season-high in team turnovers.

Washington State’s season-high four-game winning streak was snapped at the hands of the rival Washington in Seattle on Wednesday night in an 89-73 loss.

WSU (9-3) turned the ball over 22 times — 29.3% of their possessions — allowing UW (8-3) to score 24 of their points off WSU miscues. WSU also found themselves in foul trouble with three Cougars finishing with four fouls and Dane Erikstrup fouling out. Six different Huskies tallied double-digit points.

The Cougars raced out the gates with a 15-7 lead behind a pair of and-ones from former Husky, Nate Calmese. UW didn’t allow WSU to get the lead any bigger, responding with a 7-0 run to pull back within a point. While WSU turned the ball over six times in the first 13 minutes, UW didn’t entirely capitalize on all of WSU’s miscues, scoring just four points on the six turnovers. Eventually, the Huskies began to take advantage of even more WSU turnovers, knocking down a pair of treys off WSU turnovers as part of a game-changing 11-0 run to take a six-point lead.

When WSU wasn’t turning the ball over, they were missing their shots. Over the last six and a half minutes of the first half, WSU went just 2/10 from the field, missing eight straight before Ethan Price ended the half with a bucket to cut the deficit to four.

While Erikstrup got the second half started on the right foot with a layup to bring the game within two, the Cougars followed it up with four more turnovers resulting in a 9-0 UW run to build their lead up to 11. In need of a spark, Isaiah Watts took matters into his own hands with a vicious poster dunk over Great Osobor and let him know about it.

Osobor asked the ref for a tech and got his wish, sending DJ Davis to line for two free throws and cashed a three on the ensuing possession for a five-point swing that ballooned the lead up to 14. As the Cougars tried to get themselves back in the game, the Huskies had an answer. UW shot 60% from the field and 41.7% from beyond the arc in the second half to grow a lead to as high as 20.

WSU’s defense was also handcuffed by fouls in the second half. With multiple players in foul trouble, David Riley was forced to rotate in some deep bench guys for multiple minutes and the players in foul trouble having to be extra cautious not to pick up their fifth foul.

Ultimately, it’s hard to win a game when you turn the ball over 22 times.

The Cougars will travel down to Orleans Arena in Paradise, Nevada for another good non-conference test against the Northern Iowa Panthers as part of the Holiday Hoops Classic.