Isaac Bonton nearly led Washington State past UCLA on Saturday. His missed three pointer at the end of regulation meant the Cougs were headed to overtime. And that ended up being bad news all around.

The Bruins pulled away from WSU in the extra period to seal the 86-83 win but, more importantly, Isaac Bonton went down with a nasty looking leg injury that caused him to miss the team’s next game at USC.

After a lackluster outing for WSU against the Trojans, Kyle Smith and the Cougs were hoping to have Bonton’s spark back in the lineup. But it doesn’t look like that’s going to be the case.

In a press conference today, Smith called Bonton “questionable” for Wednesday night’s home game against Cal. The Cougar head coach also confirmed that Bonton had suffered a hip injury when he went down against UCLA.

The good news, however, is that Smith is “hopeful” Bonton will be ready for Sunday’s home finale against Stanford.

So, without Bonton, the question is: How do the Cougs replace the output of their second leading scorer?

On Saturday at USC, the Cougar offense looked lost at times, falling to the Trojans 70-51 and going just 4 for 28 from deep, including 22 consecutive misses. It was an ugly showing, and the Cougs have been working all week to iron out the kinks and Smith says the Cougs will be leaning on a pair of juniors tonight.

“Part of it is just trying to get Marvin (Cannon) and Tony (Miller) to get the rust off because I’m kind of counting on those guys,” Smith said. “Tony just finds ways to score out there and Marvin was really coming on before his injury... We’ll have to put a couple of extra wrinkles in just because we’re playing differently for sure.”

The Cougs will look for a bounce back win tonight against a Cal team that has yet to win a conference game on the road this season. Tip off set for 7 o’clock and you can watch it on the Pac-12 Network.

Washington State’s Isaac Bonton (hip) ‘doubtful’ to play against Cal, ‘hopeful’ for home finale vs. Stanford | The Spokesman-Review
The Cougars may have to find alternative ways of manufacturing offense Wednesday night against Cal, but they expect to have Bonton back in the fold for the last home game of the regular season, on Sunday against Stanford, and for three final road games, at Washington, Arizona and Arizona State.

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