In what could end up an important game for the West Coast Conference seeding the Cougars fell to the San Diego Toreros 96-92. In what seems to be a repeat of multiple games the past two seasons, it was the defensive performance from Washington State that lost them the game.

The Cougars and star freshman guard Ace Glass almost made a miraculous comeback in “America’s Finest City,” cutting the deficit to two points in the final minute after previously being down by 18 points. But, some clutch free-throws from the Toreros sealed the Cougars’ fate. Glass finished the game leading the Cougars in scoring with 29 points.

“We’ve got some soul searching to do on defense and it’s embarrassing to give up an average of 90 points on the road in the last two games,” head coach David Riley said.

The Toreros won this game from excellent shooting and hustle, recording their high in three-pointers made as a team at 15. They did that at an efficient mark as well hitting 54% of their three-point attempts. Their shotmaking led to the Toreros scoring the most points in their program since 2018.

Glass was a star performer for the Cougars, but it did not start like that. With only 5 points in the first half, Glass turned on the heat and put up 24 points to end the game.

The first half was a disaster for the Cougars on both ends of the court, losing the rebounding battle to San Diego who came into the game as the second worst rebounding team in the WCC at 31.5 rebounds per game. San Diego finished the game with 36 rebounds.

Going down big early it was a struggle for the Cougars to get back into it. Being down 40-22 with just under three minutes until halftime the Cougars went on a 10-2 run to cut the deficit to 10 by halftime.

Starting the second half WSU took an aggressive approach, and junior center ND Okafor started the comeback. The big man got into the paint and scored on two straight possessions to draw the score closer for the Cougars.

It was a great offensive performance from Okafor who got 22 points on top of six rebounds in the game. Okafor was crucial in the comeback grabbing multiple offensive rebounds and getting to the free-throw line late in the game.

Unfortunately for Washington State, San Diego’s junior guard Ty-Laur Johnson got a whopping 26 points just in the second half. Johnson finished with a career-high 28 points along with seven rebounds and three steals.

“I felt like I stayed in rhythm even sitting on the bench,” he said.

To help the Cougars, Glass had some clear window plays in the second half. One of them being three minutes into the second half when he drove between two San Diego defenders to put in a contested layup off the backboard.

Another offensive weapon that’s been missed from the Cougars was junior forward Rihards “Latvian Laser” Vavers who hadn’t played since the Cougars played at Saint Mary’s earlier this month. Vavers ended up with 16 points coming off the bench and nailing three three-pointers. Vavers also co-led the team in rebounds with seven boards in the game.

In a wild final 90 seconds of game time, the Cougars fought for every offensive possession and made some big threes to make it close. They eventually lost to free throws made by San Diego freshman forward Gavin Ripp to have the Toreros secure the four point victory.

The Cougars could only force six turnovers on the Toreros compared to the Cougars ten which ended up being a deciding factor by the end of the game.

Head coach David Riley was frustrated with the Cougars effort.

“We didn’t come ready to play defensively,” he said. “I’m really disappointed as a coach to have a team that wasn’t ready to go.”

Washington State is now 8-13 on the season with a 3-5 record in the WCC ranking ninth in the conference. This is now the fourth-straight loss with their last win coming against Oregon State on Jan. 4.

The confidence level in the team seems uncertain moving forward to the final half of the season.

“I just need to know what I’m getting from guys,” Riley said. “We’re not going to become a good team until we know what we’re getting consistently from guys.”

The Cougars will look to get out of their four-game skid when they go up against Pepperdine at 3 p.m. Saturday at Beasley Coliseum.