UC Riverside
Washington State
Highlanders Fall to Cougars, 86-55
11/19/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
The Washington State Cougars defeated the visiting UC Riverside Highlanders, 86-55, in front of 1,526 fans at the Friel Court in Pullman, WA Saturday, spoiling the debut of new UCR Head Coach David Spencer.
The Highlanders, playing without senior forward Klaus Schille (ankle surgery) and senior point guard Justin Bell (knee injury), struggled with their shooting against the taller Cougar squad, but showed improvement as they gained their confidence as the evening wore on.
Redshirt freshman Houston Power led the Highlanders with 11 points and sophomore guard Larry Cunningham and freshman guard Sean Cunningham each had 10 points. Overall, UCR shot 19-of-79 (24.1%) from the field and 6-of-33 (18.2%) from the three point line. UCR was 11-of-12 from the free throw line.
Josh Akognon led the Cougars with 21 points on 8-of-11 shooting, while Aron Baynes had 19 points on 7-of-8 shooting. Overall, the Cougars shot 60.8% from the field (31-of-51). Derrick Low had 15 points and added 11 assists.
UCR forced the Cougars into 22 turnovers, committing just 14 themselves.
The Highlanders scored first on a three-point conversion by sophomore Larry Cunningham, but nearly five minutes without scoring before freshman Benoit Bekono converted a pair of free throws at 14:12, and just under seven minutes before Dedrick Bates drained the team's second field goal at 12:22. UCR was just 6-of-38 (15.8%) from the field in the first half and 0-of-16 from the three-point line. In contrast, the Cougars hit 15-of-25 (60.0%) from the field and 4-of-6 from the three-point line. UCR got into early foul trouble, losing senior guard Rickey Porter and senior forward David Misko to the bench after each received a pair of early whistles.
The Highlanders found their flow a bit more in the second half, but were still outscored 42-36. WSU won the rebound battle, 42-35.
