Prairie View A&M @ Washington St. preview
Friel Court at Beasley Coliseum
Washington State has finally learned what it's like to coast to victory.
The Cougars (6-0) will look to employ that lesson Monday when they host Prairie View A&M (1-2) in Pullman, Wash.
The Cougars, who rallied from halftime deficits in each of their first four games of the season, are coming off an 82-54 victory against Montana State on Friday.
Noah Williams scored a career-high 21 points and Efe Abogidi had his first double-double with 19 points and 15 rebounds.
"Personally, I just feel like coming back, it shows a lot of grit," Cougars guard Isaac Bonton said of his team's first four games. "We're a gritty team and we're going to grind out wins and it's going to come to that point. So early on in the season, I feel like it was big for us to see that we can do that so we can have that ability later on in the season."
Not that Bonton didn't appreciate the breather in the Cougars' last contest.
"We definitely want to step on teams' throats," he said. "We definitely want to be those guys that can get a lead early and then maintain a lead. You want to have a balance in everything. I'm really proud of my guys, just early on, being that young and grinding out wins, finding ways to win."
The Cougars are off to their best start since the 2017-18 season. They're 2-0 all-time against the Panthers, including a 131-78 victory in 1991, during which they set a program record for most points in a game.
Prairie View has been idle since coronavirus concerns forced it to withdraw from a tournament at Louisville following an 86-64 loss to the hosts on Nov. 29. The Panthers' past three games, including a matchup last Friday at Missouri, have been canceled.
"I won't say that I'm afraid to play against anyone, but I'm very cautious," Panthers coach Byron Smith told The Undefeated. "Obviously, you want to protect your team."
Jeremiah Gambrell Jr. scored 20 against Louisville and leads the Panthers with 11.7 points per game.
"I don't think any team in the country is going to be as good on day one as they are a month or three weeks into the season," said Smith, whose team had a seven-point lead against Louisville before fading in the second half. "But the goal is to go out and compete against the best competition we can get."
--Field Level Media