The Cougars are set to take on the University of San Francisco Dons in the West Coast Conference quarterfinals.

WSU, who finished sixth in the conference, beat Loyola Marymount to move on. USF finished third in the conference.

USF and WSU split the regular season series 1-1. The Cougars won in Pullman on Jan. 4 in a 92-81 slugfest. However, in San Francisco it was a different story. The Dons beat Wazzu 75-51, in one of the worst offensive showings of the season for Wazzu.

In fact, San Francisco was nearly perfect at home. They won 16 straight home games to open the season before losing their season finale on senior night against Gonzaga. The Dons were on the March Madness bubble before a pair of late-season losses to Gonzaga torpedoed their chances, and are now in the same spot as WSU, needing to win the WCC to go dancing.

Nate Calmese likes the Cougs chances, saying last night that he thinks Wazzu can beat any team they face.

“I think we could beat anybody,” said Calmese. “We played all these teams before, we know what they can do, they know what we can do … we just gotta go out there and do it.”

Ethan Price said the team has had more energy during their current three-game winning streak, and agreed with Calmese.

“If you watch us, you can kinda feel that energy,” said Price.

Head coach David Riley credited the Dons for their smacking of the Cougs in San Francisco, but said he expects his team to put up a better fight this time around.

“It’s gonna be a heck of a game,” said Riley. “They put a number on us at their place, at our place we had a good game against them.”

The Dons will be without their all-conference point guard Marcus Williams, which could be a game-changer for WSU. Guard Ryan Beasley is also questionable for the Dons.