Montana St. Bobcats vs Washington St. Cougars Match Player Stats On Dec 18, 2020

Noah Williams and Efe Abogidi combined for 27 first-half points, outscoring visiting Montana State by themselves, as Washington State ran away from the Bobcats early en route to an 82-54 nonconference victory in Pullman, Wash.

Williams finished with a game-high 21 points and Abogidi had 19 points for the Cougars (6-0), who avenged a five-point loss to the Bobcats (2-2) in their most recent meeting in 2018.

Amin Adamu had 12 points and Mike Hood 11 off the bench to pace Montana State, which had averaged 91.7 points in its first three games.

Playing for the sixth straight time at home, the Cougars wasted little time taking complete control of the game, going up by 10 at 15-5 in the eighth minute and by 21 at 35-14 in the 15th minute.

Connecting on 62.1 percent of its shots over the first 20 minutes, Washington State led 46-21 at the break. Williams scored 14 of his 21 points and Abogidi collected 13 of his 19 points and eight of his game-high 14 rebounds.

Montana State shot just 20.8 percent from the field in the half and missed seven of its eight 3-point attempts.

The Bobcats righted themselves in the second half, getting outscored just 36-33, but they never got closer than 19.

Ryan Rapp contributed 12 points, while Andrej Jakimovski totaled 10 points and seven rebounds in the win, which was easily Washington State's most lopsided of the season. The Cougars had won their first five games by a total of 23 points.

Washington State outshot the visitors 49.1 percent to 26.8 percent for the game. The Cougars made seven 3-pointers, the Bobcats six.

Jubrile Belo had eight points, a team-high six rebounds and a game-high five assists for Montana State, which won 95-90 in Pullman in December of 2018.

Washington State has now won 10 of the last 11 meetings with the Bobcats dating back to 1973.

--Field Level Media