Cougars Host Bengals in 2014-15 Home Opener

WSU HOSTS IDAHO STATE IN HOME OPENER:
Washington State University men’s basketball looks for its first win in the Ernie Kent Era, as the Cougars (0-2) host Idaho State (0-2), Friday, Nov. 21 at 6 p.m., in their home opener.
• Friday’s game will be televised on Pac-12 Networks as Josh Lewin (Play-by-Play) and Dan Dickau  (Color Analyst) have the call.

ERNIE KENT ENTERS FIRST SEASON WITH THE COUGARS:
• Veteran head coach and former Fox Sports and Pac-12 Networks basketball analyst was named the 18th head coach in WSU men’s basketball history, March 31, 2014, replacing Ken Bone, who served as the Cougar head coach for five seasons.
• Kent comes to Pullman with a 325-254 (.561) mark as a head coach, having spent six seasons at the helm for Saint Mary’s in Moraga, Calif., and 13 at Oregon.
• In his 13 years at Oregon, Kent compiled a 235-174 (.575) record and a 109-125 (.466) conference mark.
• His 109 conference wins rank 17th most in Pac-12 history (including Pacific-8 and Pacific-10 Conferences).
• While at Oregon, Kent led the Ducks to seven postseason appearances, including five NCAA Tournament Appearances (2000, 2002, 2003, 2007, 2008) as well as a Pac-10 regular-season (2002) and two conference tournament (2003, 2007) titles.

COUGARS VERSUS BENGALS:
• Friday’s game is the seventh all-time meeting between WSU and ISU, as the Cougars hold a 6-1 advantage in the all-time series.
• WSU’s only loss in the series came Dec. 17, 1983, a 91-67 setback at Pocatello.
• The Cougars have won four-straight meetings in the series and have won all three meetings at home.
• The two teams last met Dec. 28, 2012 in a neutral-site game at Toyota Center in Kennewick, Wash...WSU won the game, 74-39.
• For more on the series see page 1, for more on the last meeting, see page 4 of today’s notes.
• First-year head coach Ernie Kent holds a 3-0 all-time record against Idaho State in his 19 years of head coaching experience.

COUGARS IN BEASLEY COLISEUM OPENERS:
• The Cougars have won 24-consecutive Beasley Coliseum openers with their last loss coming to BYU by a score of 60-53, Dec. 3, 1987.

ROAD WARRIORS:
• Washington State was the only Pac-12 school to open the 2014-15 season on the road.
• In fact, in the first two weeks of the season (Friday, Nov. 14-Sun., Nov. 22), just five true road games were played by Pac-12 schools, two of those were WSU’s games.
• The five road games don’t include the seven neutral-site games.
• The Cougars had already played two road games before any other Pac-12 school had played on the road or at a neutral-site venue.
• Five of WSU’s first six games are away from Pullman, including three games at the Great Alaska Shootout, Nov. 27-29.

ABOUT  THE COUGARS:
•  The Cougars are currently 0-2 after dropping a pair of games in Texas to open the season..
• WSU’s road opener marked just the sixth time it has opened the season with a true road game outside the state of Washington and the first time since Nov. 19, 1999, an 80-55 loss at Nevada.
• Last season WSU finished 10-21 overall and 3-15 in Pac-12 play, finishing 11th.
• WSU returns nine letterwinners including three starters from last year’s squad.
• Among those is senior guard DaVonté Lacy who led the team with 19.4 points per game a year ago.
• His scoring average would have been the second-best in Pac-12 play, but he missed eight of the team’s 31 games due to injury, resulting in him playing just 74.2 percent of the team’s games, rather than the 75 percent required to rank in the league. 
• Lacy is joined by fellow seniors Dexter Kernich-Drew and Jordan Railey, who are the other two returning starters from last season.
• A guard, Kernich-Drew averaged just 6.3 points per game as a redshirt junior, but showed flashes of greatness, including a 24-point performance against Colorado, Jan. 8, in which he made a career-high 6 3-pointers.
• A center, Railey changed his uniform number from 20 to 4, and is looking to put a dent in WSU’s career blocks records.
• Redshirt sophomore Que Johnson is another Cougar that had big games last season, as he led Washington State in scoring in six of the eight games that Lacy missed in 2013-14, including two 21-point performances.
• Johnson was third on the team in scoring with 9.5 points per game.
• Junior forward Junior Longrus also returns for WSU after starting seven games as a sophomore, as do guards Dominic Ballard and Ike Iroegbu and forwards Brett Boese and Josh Hawkinson.
• WSU boasts six newcomers, the most since Tony Bennett brought in seven newcomers for the 2008-09 season.
• Among those newcomers are freshmen guards Jackie Davis, Trevor Dunbar and Ny Redding, and juniors Marcus Graham (guard), Aaron Cheatum (forward) and Valentine Izundu (center). 
• Izundu will redshirt due to NCAA rules after transferring from Houston.

LACY MARKING UP RECORD BOOKS:
• Senior DaVonté Lacy is making his mark on the WSU record books.
• In the first round of the Pac-12 Tournament, Lacy became the 34th Cougar to reach 1,000 career points, ending the season in 32nd with 1,023 points.
• He is the ninth-fastest Cougar to reach the milestone as he accomplished the feat in 85 games.
• Lacy moved up three spots in WSU’s two games of the season, now in 28th with 1,049 points.
• If Lacy were to average the same amount of points as last season (19.4) and stays healthy and plays at least 31 games, he would finish his career with at least 1,624 points, which would put him fourth in WSU’s record books.
• If he sticks with his career average of 12.0 ppg, he will finish with 1,395 points which would put him at 11th in the WSU career record books.
• If Lacy stays at 13.0 ppg, he would finish with 1,426 points, which would put him at eighth in WSU’s record books.
• Lacy is also climbing up the record books for career  3-pointers made and is on pace for the record, currently in sole possession of eighth place with 184 made 3-pointers after passing Marcus Moore (2001-04).
• He is currently 18 away from Chris Crosby (1997-2000) in seventh place with 202.
• Lacy is just 58 3-pointers away from tying Klay Thompson for the school record...if he were to stay healthy during his senior season, Lacy would need to average just under 2 made 3-pointers per game to reach the record.
• Lacy is 15th in the WSU career record books with a .370 3-point field goal percentage.

BLOCK PARTIES:
• In just his second season with the Cougars, seven-foot senior Jordan Railey is on pace to move into WSU’s career top-20 for blocked shots as he currently has 30.
• Junior Junior Longrus is just two blocked shots shy of entering the top-20 with 43 blocks in two seasons.
• With a 0.6 career blocks per game average, Longrus is on pace to finish with 85 blocked shots in his career, which would put him at 12th on WSU’s all-time list.
WSU FINISHES ROAD TRIP WITH LOSS TO TCU:
• Washington State fell at TCU, 81-54, Monday, Nov. 17 at Forth Worth.
• Sophomore Josh Hawkinson had career-highs with 13 rebounds and 14 points, notching his first career double-double.
• He had then-career highs of 8 points and 8 rebounds in the season opener at UTEP, Nov. 14
• Freshman Jackie Davis saw his first action as a Cougar…played 13 minutes and scored 4 points.
• Freshman guard Ny Redding had his first career block.
• Redding (2-for-2), Davis (2-for-5) and fellow freshman Trevor Dunbar (0-for-2) shot their first career free throws.
• Dunbar had a career-high 3 assists.
• Senior Jordan Railey tied his career high with 3 blocked shots.

COUGARS FALL IN OPENER AT UTEP:
• Washington State fell at UTEP, 65-52, Friday, Nov. 14 in both teams’ season openers at El Paso.
• Redshirt sophomore Que Johnson had his first career double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds…his 11 rebounds are a career high.
• Sophomore Josh Hawkinson bettered his blocks total from the entire year last season with 5 in the game…he had 4 all of last season. 
• Hawkinson added a career-high 8 rebounds…his previous high was 6 done last season against San Francisco State.
• Senior DaVonté Lacy led all scorers with 15 points…11 of his points came in the second half. 
• Freshman Ny Redding finished with 8 points on 4-for-6 shooting…he added a game-high 5 assists.
• Three newcomers played in the game, Dunbar and Redding and junior college transfer Aaron Cheatum…Redding and Cheatum both scored (2 points for Cheatum).

HAWKINSON LIFTS COUGS  TO EXHIBITION WIN:
• Sophomore forward Josh Hawkinson averaged just 1.2 points and 1.6 rebounds per game last year as a freshman, but scored 24 points and grabbed 18 rebounds in WSU’s exhibition win over Azusa Pacific, Friday, Nov. 7.
• Hawkinson was 10-for-11 from the field and 2-for-2 from 3-point range, while 16 of his boards came on the defensive end.
• Senior DaVonté Lacy added 22 points for the Cougars, 17 in the second half.
• Four newcomers saw action and three of them scored (freshmen Ny Redding - 3 points and Trevor Dunbar - 1 point, junior Aaron Cheatum - 2 points).
• The Cougars shot .613 (19-for-31) from the field and .450 (9-for-20) from 3-point range.
• Redshirt sophomore Que Johnson added 10 points on 2-for-3 shooting from 3-point range.