Washington State opened the season with a familiar problem and a familiar opponent, and Davidson made sure the Cougars paid for both.
The Wildcats came into Monday night with the same clear identity they showed in last season’s win in North Carolina: they can shoot it, and they can really shoot it. They hit 12 3-pointers again, rolled to a 76-61 victory at Friel Court in Pullman, and handed WSU a rough season-opening loss in the process.
Sam Brown paced Davidson with 22 points, while Nick Janowski added 21. Washington State never found enough offense to keep up, especially after learning earlier in the day that projected offensive leader Ronnie Harrison would miss the game after feeling soreness in his ankle during morning shootaround.
That loss loomed large. Harrison, the 6-foot-8 transfer from East Texas A&M, is the one player on the roster defenses have to specifically account for at all three levels.
“Ronnie is someone that gives us stability, and someone that has been there before,” Riley said.
Without him, and with point guard Lazerek Houston mostly quiet as a scorer, the Cougars spent much of the night searching for rhythm that never really arrived. WSU did not get its first field goal until 16:15 remained in the first half, when Jamari Phillips turned a steal into a transition dunk to trim Davidson’s lead to 7-3.
For stretches, the scoring came in fragments. Phillips and Dominik Robinson had brief bursts early.
Later, Casey Jones, Sebastian Akins and Jaylen Harrell chipped in after halftime. But nothing held up long enough to change the game’s shape.
“We stood around, and did not get to the next action,” Riley said. “We did decent stuff defensively, but stagnation hurt us.”
Davidson kept stretching the floor and stretching the margin. After Brown buried a long 3-pointer to push the Wildcats ahead 47-28 with 15:24 left, Riley called timeout. The Cougars responded with their best run of the night, and Harrell was the one who drove it.
He scored five of WSU’s next 10 points and finished the burst with a 3-pointer at the 12:40 mark.
“I feel like my teammates put me in the right opportunity to do what I had to do,” said Harrell, a transfer from Providence.
But Davidson’s 4:37 scoring drought ended with a Josh Scovens bucket, and Washington State never got closer than nine points the rest of the way.
Riley leaned more heavily on reserves Harrell, Akins, Robinson and Jones in the second half because of the energy and decisiveness they brought. Robinson, one of two holdovers from last season, made a strong case for a bigger role.
The 6-foot-10 redshirt freshman, who spent much of his high school career at Graham-Kapowsin High School near Tacoma, was among the first players off the bench and immediately looked like WSU’s best low-post scoring option. He also flashed some touch away from the basket, including a face-up feed to Jones for an easy score.
Robinson finished with 10 points in 23 minutes, going 5-for-9 from the field and adding four rebounds, including two on the offensive glass, plus two assists.
Washington State, meanwhile, shot just 5 of 24 from 3-point range and got 13 points from Harrell to lead the Cougars in scoring.
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