Brock Motum had a career day, scoring 34 points and grabbing 8 rebounds, but also turned the ball over 6 times as the Cougars fell to Arizona State on Saturday afternoon.
ASU came out firing, knocking down their first 4 threes and led by as much as ten in the first half. WSU was able to come back, and cut the lead to 37-36 at the break. The Sun Devils built the lead back up to 11 in the second half before the Cougars cut the lead down in the last few minutes. In the end, it was too little, too late for the Cougs.
Arizona State shot well with a 63 eFG%. They turned the ball over a lot as they typically do, but the shooting and consistent trips to the foul line after reaching the bonus early in the second half allowed them to overcome that and finished with 1.08 points per possession.
Turnovers were brutal for the Cougs, as they gave it away on 27% of their possessions. ASU's defense was forcing opponents into turnovers just 17% of the time previously. The inability to get to the free throw line was also huge as WSU had just 17 free throw attempts against 49 field goal attempts. That is 35 free throw rate, lower than Wazzu's 43 FTR coming in to the game.
The loss puts the Cougars at 3-6 halfway through conference play, and 0-5 in road games. WSU will be back at Friel Court at 7pm on Thursday night against the USC Trojans.