Cougs break from finals to face New Mexico State
vs New Mexico State (8-2) | Wed., Dec. 15 | 7 p.m.
Live Stats | StatBroadcast
Watch | Pac-12 Networks- Washington (Greg Heister & Dan Dickau)
Listen | WSU IMG Radio Network (Matt Chazanow & Craig Ehlo)
OPENING FIVE
> WSU plays its final two non-con home games of the year beginning Wednesday against New Mexico State. The two teams last faced off two years ago at the Spokane Arena. Wednesday's contest will be the first in Pullman.
> Cougs are coming off a tough loss in Spokane against South Dakota State falling on a buzzer beating three. The loss was the Cougs first non-con loss in the month of December in three years under head coach Kyle Smith.
> Michael Flowers has been the Cougs' most complete player posting an offensive rating of 128.9 (81st among all players and 17th among players with a 20% usage rate). He's scored 20+ points in three contests including a WSU career high 24 last time out.
> DJ Rodman has quietly put together another solid start to the season coming off the bench. He has a team-best offensive rating of 147.6 (4th in the country among all players). He has used his time efficiently grabbing 13.0% of offensive rebound chances. He's shooting 52.6% from the floor in just 17.5 minutes of action.
> WSU's NET rating sits at 41, dropping slightly from the program best of 37 last week.
GAME INFORMATION - vs NEW MEXICO STATE
The Cougs play their final two non-con games at Beasley beginning Wednesday against New Mexico State. The last time the two teams played came in 2019-20 at the Spokane Arena with the Cougs coming out ahead 63-54. In the game Noah Williams (as a freshman) scored 4 pts in 15 min of play). It was WSU's first win over the Aggies in three games having met twice previously in 2018 in Las Cruces and in Las Vegas. The Aggies are 8-2 on the year with their lone losses coming to Utah State and New Mexico, a loss they would avenge a week later.
Teddy Allen leads the way at 17.3 ppg and 6.8 rpg. He has come up with his first double-double (20&11) on the year against New Mexico last week while finishing with 12&8 against LMU. Sir'Jabari Rice, the Aggies' second leading scorer this season, went for 14 pts in 26 min in 2019 against the Cougs.
NEXT UP
With one last non-con game at Beasley the Cougs are set to host Northern Colorado Saturday afternoon. Despite being relatively close regionally, the Cougs and the Bears have never met on the floor in their histories. The Bears enter the week 6-5 overall having won their last three contests, They take on #8 Arizona Wednesday before heading to the Palouse. The Bears are lead by Daylen Kountz at 18.9 ppg as the senior is shooting 48.7% from the floor and 40.4% from deep.
LAST TIME OUT - vs SOUTH DAKOTA STATE
SDSU 77- WSU 74 | DEC. 11, 2021 | Spokane, WASH.
Baylor Scheierman hit a step-back 3-pointer that dropped through the net as time expired, lifting South Dakota State to a 77-74 win over Washington State on Saturday.
Scheierman's shot came on the final possession after the Cougars tied the game on a pair of TJ Bamba free throws with 23 seconds left. Michael Flowers pulled Washington State within 74-72 with a step-back shot of his own with 31.6 seconds to go and Noah Williams quickly stole the ball from Scheierman.
There were eight ties and eight lead changes in the game.
BLOCK PARTY
Kicking off the new campaign the Cougs have started a block party in Beasley hosted by sophomores Efe Abogidi and Dishon Jackson as well as freshman Mouhamed Gueye. As a team the Cougs rank 28th in the country with 5.4 blocks per game. That team mark is bolstered by Abogidi who ranks 55th individually at 1.9 blocks per game and Jackson at 130th at 1.4 bpg. Gueye is right behind the two at 0.8 bpg.
More impressively, Abogidi has come up with a block rate of 11.4% when on the floor (21st best in the country) while Jackson rates at 8.2%.y).
Abogidi posted a career-best 6 blocks against UCSB - the first Coug since Valentine Izundu's 6 vs Idaho State (11/20/15). Last season, Abogidi blocked 36 shots the second best for a Coug freshman. Jackson joined Abogidi in the club with a career best 5 blocks against EWU Nov. 27.
BLOCK PARTY - PART 2, ABOGIDI CLIMBING THE RECORD BOOKS
in just his second year at WSU, sophomore Efe Abogidi is has begun his ascent up the all-time list for blocked shots (which started being tracked in 1976).
Career blocks - 55 - tied for 20th overall - Next up 19th, Fred Ferguson (1993-94), 56 - 18th, Jordan Railey (2014-15), 62
Sophomore season blocks - 19 - 11th overall - Next up T10th, Two players, 22
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