Cougar offense struggles without Hawkinson

Before Saturday’s tip off against Arizona State, the Washington State basketball team appeared to have its best chance at winning another Pac-12 game before the season ended. The Cougars were hosting the second-worst team in the conference, and it seemed like an opportune time to end their eight-game losing streak.

All of that came to a screeching halt, however, when it was discovered that Josh Hawkinson wouldn’t be able to play after sustaining an ankle injury Wednesdayagainst Arizona. Without their best player, who already has 16 double-doubles this year, the Cougars (9-14, 1-10) were out of sync as they lost 67-55 to ASU in a game that was rarely that close.

“Not having that automatic double-double on the floor, that’s a big clog for us,” WSU coach Ernie Kent said, “because not only does it knock you out of whack in terms of your ability to score and rebound but just your swag, your confidence.”

ASU led by as many as 19 points in the second half, and by double digits for all but 20 seconds of the second half. The loss extends WSU’s streak to nine games - the longest since Ken Bone’s squad lost nine in a row during the 2012-2013 season.

“We’ve got eight games left,” WSU junior Charles Callison. “Our goal right now is just to get a win and get one at a time and just go from there.”

WSU led 16-15 when Conor Clifford scored a layup, but three straight 3-pointers from the SunDevils gave them a 24-16 lead. The Cougars were still very much in the thick of things whe Ike Iroegbu’s layup in the closing seconds of the first half brought them within 37-32, but a 35-footer by Obinna Oleka at the buzzer put ASU ahead 40-32 and foreshadowed what was to come in the second half.

ASU continued to pile on the scoring, while the Cougars scored just eight points in the first 10 minutes after the break, and at that point ASU led 58-40. Hawkinson’s absence was obvious to everyone as the Cougars failed to find their rhythm.

“I don’t want to use that as an excuse, because we had guys that can step up and take his place,” Callison said. “We just couldn’t get it done. Having Josh gone does affect the team but it’s not an excuse.”

Ike Iroegbu, who had led the team in scoring over each of the previous four games, had a difficult time without his partner in crime. He was only 3-for-6 in the game, and played 28 minutes despite being the best player on the roster.

“I thought he was out of whack. He wasn’t getting a lot of things done on the floor and we’re trying to get guys in the game, get more energy,” Kent said. “Sometimes when you lose your running mate like that, that tends to happen. You tend to press a little bit.”

As for the losing streak, Kent said the team is handling the adversity in stride.

“The exhausting part is what happens on game days when you work so hard through the course of the week or weeks and you get no reward for it, that’s the exhausting part for them and for us,” Kent said. “But the character building part of it and and the growth for your program part of it and the process of it is do you come back to work every day and put your time, put your effort in and your energy in and stay together. Yes, we’re seeing those things out of this team.”

WSU will look to end the losing streak Thursdayat Colorado.

Tom Hager can be reached at (208) 883-4633 or by email to thager@dnews.com.