Cougars improve to 2-0 against Lamar

The WSU men’s basketball team defeated the Lamar Cardinals Friday by a score 84-64, earning their second win of the season.

Defensively, WSU started the game by putting pressure on the Cardinals, which helped the Cougars edge out to an early lead. In the first half the Cougars stole the ball four times from Lamar.

“On the ball (defending) I feel like we did a better job than we did last week, and we just got to continue to improve,” WSU guard DaVonte Lacy said in an interview after the game.

Freshman guard Ikenna Iroegbu led the way for the Cougars in the first half, coming off the bench and contributing eight points along with controlling the tempo of the offense.

WSU hit four three-pointers in the first half, which helped the team edge to a sixteen-point lead going to into halftime.

The Cougars kept up their high defensive pressure, causing the Cardinals to struggle on offense. With 15 minutes left in the game, WSU controlled the game, leading by 56-40.

Lamar would not go away, however. The Cardinals played full-court pressure defense, and cut the deficit to seven points with nine minutes left in the game. Then Irogebu drove to the lane and scored a hard earned two points, which resulted in a three-point play.

From there the Cougars would not look back and found their groove on both sides of the ball. With less than eight minutes to play in the game, WSU guard Dexter Kernich-Drew threw down a 360 dunk, igniting the crowd in Beasley Coliseum.

“Hopefully some day we will get a lead and maintain that lead, but it’s hard,” WSU men’s head basketball coach Ken Bone said. “You know other teams are behind, at some point are usually going to make a run and they did. They did a good job of it.”

Lacy led all scorers tonight with 21 points. In his second collegiate game of his career, Que Johnson scored eight points, grabbed two rebounds and had one assist.

“I feel like I’m getting more into the offense,” Johnson said.

WSU improves to 2-0 on the season and will travel to Spokane on Thursday to face off against the No. 15 ranked Gonzaga Bulldogs.Â