WATCH: David Riley Reviews Washington State Basketball's Loss To Gonzaga

Jan 11, 2025; Spokane, Washington, USA; Washington State Cougars head coach David Riley reacts after a play against the Gonzaga Bulldogs in the first half at McCarthey Athletic Center. Mandatory Credit: James Snook-Imagn Images
Jan 11, 2025; Spokane, Washington, USA; Washington State Cougars head coach David Riley reacts after a play against the Gonzaga Bulldogs in the first half at McCarthey Athletic Center. Mandatory Credit: James Snook-Imagn Images | James Snook-Imagn Images

The Washington State Cougars dropped their second straight game on Saturday night, falling 88-75 to a #18 Gonzaga Bulldogs team with aspirations of a deep NCAA tournament run. While the Cougars put forth a great effort in the first half, they turned the ball over 12 times, which allowed their opponents to take complete control in the second half.

Cougars' head coach David Riley lamented his team's performance after the fact and noted what his group needs to fix to get back into the WCC race. WSU will face Gonzaga again on February 19 in Pullman.

Watch the full presser below.

NOTES

-"It was a hard-fought game and I feel like we had it slip away from us early in that second half where we didn't stay connected as much, and I personally didn't do a good enough job of having us ready for the fight. They got some 50-50 balls, they got a couple offensive rebounds, just some toughness plays that second half that hurt us. And you know, that's what it's going to come down to. We're going to have game plan stuff, we're going to have X's and O's, we're going to have great plays from different players and bad plays from different players, but that fight for 40 minutes I think was the difference and they came out with a little more fire than us."

-On Gonzaga's Ryan Nembhard getting hot in the second half: "He did a good job with their pace. I think he gets them up the floor really well. I felt like it was a lot of factors that second half and he played a part in that and started isolating some of our bigs, we made a couple adjustments and he's a good player."

-On WSU's turnovers issues: "Got a little sped up. I think that was the common theme. We had...it seemed like three or four travels that first half from being sped up. Three of our turnovers came from post-entry passes. We had 12 turnovers at halftime, which is bad. But that six or seven turnovers right there, they're very very controllable. Gonzaga does a good job, three quarter front in the post, we knew we had to throw ball fakes, we got sped up."

-On not being able to capitalize on Gonzaga's key players being on the bench at different points: "Obviously we could have done a little bit more and picked on that but I think there was more more of us kind of shooting ourselves in the foot at different times."


More Reading Material From Washington State Cougars On SI

Washington State MBB Fall To #18 Gonzaga 88-75 Despite Cougs' Strong First Half

TRANSFER PORTAL: Cal Poly Cornerback Kai Rapolla Signs With Washington State

Washington State Announces 9 New Assistant Coaches For Jimmy Rogers' First Staff


Published
Joe Londergan
JOE LONDERGAN

Joe Londergan joined the SI brand in 2023 with G5 Football Daily. With over 15 years of experience in covering and working directly in college and pro sports, Joe's expertise has been featured in Front Office Sports, SB Nation, and XRAY.FM. He is a member of both the Football Writers' Association of America and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers' Association. Joe holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Louisville and a master's degree in sports administration from Seattle University. Outside of his writing career, Joe enjoys golfing, although he admits that while he hits driver decently, his short game is a liability.

Share on XFollow joehio_