Jaylen Wells posted season highs of 18 points and 10 rebounds as Washington State clobbered UC Riverside 86-49 in a nonconference game Wednesday night in Pullman, Wash.
Isaac Jones scored 15 points and Oscar Cluff added 12 points and eight rebounds for the Cougars (7-1), who won their fifth game in a row and improved to 6-0 at home.
Isaiah Moses’ 17 points led UC Riverside (4-6), which lost by just a point last week at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion. He was the only Highlanders player to score in double digits as the team shot just 27.5 percent (14 of 51) from the field.
Washington State guard Myles Rice, the reigning Pac-12 freshman of the week, scored eight points on 3-of-9 shooting from the field. Rice appeared to suffer a right thumb injury in the first half and had it heavily taped after intermission, but still contributed four assists and had two steals.
Cougars coach Kyle Smith got a victory over one of his former assistants in UC Riverside’s Mike Magpayo, who worked for Smith at both Columbia and San Francisco.
The Cougars led 46-22 at the half.
Washington State opened with an 8-0 run and, after the Highlanders pulled within 11-6, scored 23 unanswered points. Wells’ 3-pointer with 14:05 left in the half sparked the latter run, and Isaiah Watts’ trey with 6:48 remaining capped it.
Wells went 3 for 4 from 3-point range in the half, and Watts was 2 for 5.
The Cougars outscored UCR 13-0 in points off turnovers and 12-0 on second-chance points in the half.
It would’ve been worse for the Highlanders had Moses not banked in a shot from nearly midcourt at the buzzer.
The Cougars put together a 13-0 run midway through the second half to extend their lead to 70-29.
–Field Level Media