Washington State will not be playing April basketball.
The Cougars’ season came to an end with an 85-82 loss to Georgetown on Monday night in the College Basketball Crown opener in Las Vegas, where their shorthanded group let a double-digit lead slip to an equally depleted Hoya squad.
In the inaugural CBC tournament, WSU (19-15) got double-digit scoring efforts from four players: Wing LeJuan Watts with 22 points, freshman guard Tomas Thrastarson with 12 and forwards Ethan Price with 16 and Dane Erikstrup with 15 in his 100th game of Division I basketball.
Up three at halftime, the Cougars were undone on the offensive glass, where the Hoyas burned them for 18 offensive rebounds for 13 second-chance points. The most important rebound belonged to Georgetown guard Malik Mack, who popped for a career-high 37 points, including two free throws after grabbing his own miss in the final seconds.
Georgetown was up 83-82 when Mack missed a straightaway three-pointer with seven seconds left, only to track down his own miss, which forced WSU to foul and stop the clock. Mack sank the free throws, and on the other end, the Hoyas fouled Watts to prevent the Cougars from trying a game-tying triple.
After Watts made the first shot and purposely missed the second, his group still got the chance. The miss caromed around and found WSU’s best shooter, sophomore wing Ri Vavers, who wound up with a pretty clean look on the left side. But Vavers sailed it a tad wide right, where it clanged off the rim as the buzzer sounded.
It was a familiar development for WSU, which has struggled all season in the rebounding department. The Hoyas were operating without two of their best big men, but that didn’t stop them from earning more than a dozen second-chance points.
WSU was operating without two starters, guards Nate Calmese and Isaiah Watts, both of whom are in the transfer portal. Without those two, the Cougars were down 26 points and 6.5 assists per game. They were missing their lead ball-handler, Calmese, as well as a reliable catch-and-shoot threat in Watts, who made 35% of his three-pointers this season.
Freshman guard Marcus Wilson, who has been out for all but four games this season with a season-ending shoulder injury, is the third Cougar in the portal. He was expected to miss Monday’s game, so his absence didn’t figure much into the contest.
Georgetown was also shorthanded, missing several key players: Leading scorer Micah Peavy and Jayden Epps, who combined for 30 points per game, both missed the game with what Georgetown called a “health incident.” Freshman forward Thomas Sorber was also out with a foot injury, and forward Drew Fielder is in the transfer portal.
Mack made up for those absences and more. He was unconscious, at one point sinking an off-balance three-pointer to give the Hoyas a 77-72 lead, which capped their 9-0 run with four minutes to play. At that point, Georgetown looked in control of the game.
But WSU had plenty of answers. The Cougs countered with a run of their own, this one of the 6-0 variety, all at the free-throw line. That gave WSU a 78-77 lead with three minutes to play.
The rest of crunch time was a seesaw affair. In the final minute, the Hoyas took a lead as big as three after a putback, only for LeJuan Watts to follow with a coast-to-coast layup off the made basket. Moments later, after WSU coach David Riley took advantage of the CBC experimenting with coaches’ challenge — which aren’t allowed in regular games — to contest an out-of-bounds call, the ball stayed with Georgetown.
That’s what gave Mack the chance to miss a triple, get his own rebound and follow with two free throws. For WSU, it was a fitting end to the season.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
