Washington State Hoops Drops Third Straight To End Regular Season

Washington State's second regular season under the direction of head coach David Riley came to a close on Saturday night as the Cougars lost to Pepperdine 88-79 in Malibu.

Ace Glass led the Cougars with 22 points on the night. ND Okafor recorded just his second career double-double with 15 points and ten rebounds. RIhards Vavers and Jerone Morton also notched 13 and 11 points, respectively.

WSU made 28 of their field goals while attempting a season-high 71.

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The Cougars grabbed their only lead of the contest at the 18:01 mark of the first half. They lost the lead for good 18 seconds of game time later. WSU turned the ball over seven times in the opening 20 minutes, with Pepperdine scoring nine points off of those turnovers. Pepperdine also doubled up the Cougars in the paint with 24 points compared to 12. The Wave led 36-28 at the halftime break, which typically doesn't spell good fortune for WSU.

In the second half, it was a much more evenly matched contest. Glass scored 18 of his points and the Cougs made six shots from deep to keep themselves in it, but that offensive surge came too late. Pepperdine's lead ballooned to 20 points at the 8:36 mark, and WSU gradually whittled that margin to nine points in the remaining time. In the end, WSU were outscored 50-32 in the paint.

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The Cougs won just one true road game this season, which came at Portland on December 28. WSU also never won a game this season when they were wearing their Anthracite (gray) uniforms.

Washington State will finish the regular season with an overall record of 12-19 with a conference record of 7-11, a regression from last year's 19-15, 8-10 campaign that included a spot in the College Basketball Crown postseason tournament.

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After winning just one of their seven games in February, Saturday's loss ensures that Washington State will enter the West Coast Conference Tournament as either No. 7 or No. 8 seed. Their first WCC Tournament game will be Friday, March 6 at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. The bracket for the event will be released Sunday morning.

Next season, the Cougars will be playing as a member of the revamped Pac-12 Conference.