The Cougars hosted the Northern Colorado Bears on Monday, Nov. 18 and handled them on their home court by a score of 83-69, with an impressive second half leading to another solid win.

The Cougars are now 4-1, and continue to make noise in their preseason. Northern Colorado is the top-ranked team in the Big Sky KenPom and had three big wins going into the season, as well as a one-point road loss to the currently undefeated Colorado Buffaloes. The UNC Bears are no scrubs, and the Cougars beat them by 14, a strong showing.

It was a back-and-forth game early on, with the Bears taking a 9-4 lead to start the scoring. The Cougars began to catch fire about eight minutes into the first half when Isaiah Watts hit his first of four three-pointers in the game to put the Cougars on top 13-9. Still, the Bears hung around, never falling behind by double digits in the first half. When the two teams left the court for halftime, the Cougars were holding a six-point lead, up 43-37.

Both teams came out of the gate strong to start the second half, with the Bears continuing to keep it close and even taking a two-point lead at 53-51.  However, Cedric Coward led the Cougs on a 19-7 run to slam the door on a Northern Colorado upset. The Cougars’ defense stepped up its game in the second half, as they have done in all four of their home games, and Coward hit ten points in a span of six minutes.  The Cougars closed the game and did not let the Bears back into it, finishing with an 83-69 win.

Coward finished with 30 points, his highest-scoring game of the season. He made 12 of 18 field goals, including a pair of three-pointers, and knocked down four of five free throws. He also contributed three assists, two rebounds and did not turn the ball over once.

The Cougars senior, who was picked as a member of the WCC preseason team, was humble after his big game. “Some days it’ll be me being aggressive like this and dropping 30,” said Coward. “Other days…it’s having 12 assists.”

He credited his teammates for contributing in other ways and helping open up shots for him.

“Seeing Dane and Ethan post up, seeing LeJuan get rebounds, that stuff helps me.”

Coward said a big reason he had such a big game was because the Northern Colorado was not focusing their attention on him defensively.

“I was just taking advantage of my opportunity,” said Coward. “They wanted to put a smaller guy on me…there was times where I threw it out for great shots, some happened to fall, some happened to not fall.”

Head coach David Riley is now 6-2 against Northern Colorado in his career. He talked after the game about Coward’s performance and credited him for not overthinking and playing more aggressively.

“He’s had a couple good halves this season, but he was not as assertive as we need him to be,” said Riley.  “He was overthinking it a little bit…I thought he’s adjusted, it was great to see.”

Dane Erikstrup bounced back after a season-low point total against Iowa to score 14 and hit 60% of his shots. He also led the team with five blocks and added four rebounds.

Also bouncing back after a rough game in Iowa, in which he missed all of six three-point attempts, was Isaiah Watts. He flipped the script, this time making four of six threes while snagging six rebounds.

Watts spoke about his turnaround and the mental aspect of the game.

“My dad will tell you it’s hard, we was in the gym this morning…I broke down crying,” said Watts. “I’ve struggled with playing with my same joy.”

He said against Northern Colorado he tried to channel the energy he played with last year, that he “played free,” and “had fun.”

“He’s one of the hardest workers I’ve ever seen,” Coward said about Watts after the game.

Watts credited his teammates for supporting him and helping him out of his slump.

“Lean on my people, lean on my support system,” said Watts. “Coaches, teammates, just lean on my guys. I think they got me out of this slump.”

Still, he said he has felt pressure this year to be a strong three-point shooter, and when he is not able to hit the tough shots, he feels like he is not carrying his weight.

“I feel like that’s what I do, that’s what I’m here for,” said Watts.

Riley disagrees and said he believes Watts can do more than just hit threes.

“He’s more than scorer…that was kinda his role last year,” said Riley. Some of the things he believes Watts can do include “being able to drive and kick, being one of our defensive players.”

LeJuan Watts had an up-and-down game. He scored 11, while leading the team with eight rebounds and five assists, but also turned the ball for a team-leading eight times, contributing two-thirds of the team’s total turnovers in the game.

Nate Calmese, who had struggled with turnovers in the team’s first few games, limited his mistakes against the Bears, only turning it over twice.

As a team the Cougs led the Bears in points in the paint, scoring 42 compared to UNC’s 32. One area of concern for WSU is fastbreaks, from which the Cougs allowed the Bears to score 13 points.

The Cougars also showed major improvement in their three-point percentage, which climbed back above 30% after dipping to a season-low 17% against Iowa. The Cougs showed more restraint, only attempting 22 threes, the fewest so far on the season. However, they made seven of those 22 attempts and made the ones that counted.

“We watched film when we came back from Iowa…about shot selection and decision making,” said Coward. “We’d rather get great (shots) than good.”

With the win, the Cougars remain undefeated at home and have now moved into the top 90 on the KenPom rankings. They have also moved ahead of Santa Clara (2-3) and are now the fourth-ranked school in the West Coast Conference, behind Gonzaga, St. Mary’s, and San Francisco.

The Cougars next take the court on Thursday, Nov. 21 at the Spokane Arena against the Eastern Washington Eagles.