WSU Basketball | Cougs host IPFW Thursday night

Thursday night in Pullman, WA on the hardwood floor of Friel Court, the Washington State Cougars will host Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW) Mastodons. There’s a mouthful!

Tipoff is slated for 7 p.m. and with no live television coverage, make your plans to be at Beasley Coliseum early.

Coach Ken Bone has his team off to a very nice start early in the schedule. The Cougs are 2-0 with wins over Mississippi Valley State and Eastern Washington.

IPFW will arrive in Pullman coming off a big win over Madonna University 86-57. The Mastodons dominated in the first half, giving up just 13 points while pouring in 53 of their own. In case your memory is comparable to mine, 53 points would be an average score for WSU in a complete game last season. OK, Madonna is a small NAIA Division II Catholic university in Livonia, MI. Looked it up.

IPFW is a relatively small school as well with an enrollment of 12,000 and are a part of the Summit League. No question that IPFW is not afraid to take on larger schools. Their first game was with Wisconsin of the Big Ten and will include a stop in Spokane Friday night to take on Gonzaga.

A bit hard to get a read on the Mastodons. In their season opener against Wisconsin, Deilvez Yearby was suspended for violating team rules. He's very much their go-to guy. Two other players missed the game with injury. IPFW had a full complement of players in their victory over Madonna.

Yearby was impressive in his first action of the season going 6-9 from the field and 8-10 from the foul line for a game-high 20 points. He did that in just 15 minutes of playing time. Yearby is the IPFW player to watch.

For Cougar fans, look for continued offensive dominance by sophomore Klay Thompson. Klay is averaging 22 points a game to start this season. Thanks to a new-look DeAngelo Casto, the Cougs are averaging 80.5 points a contest. Casto is averaging 17 a game. Sure, that’s only two games into the season, but Coach Bone has his team playing hard on both ends of the court.

Physically, the Mastodons are comparable to Washington State evenly with one notable exception. They don’t have a player to match up with Casto. Given the tendency of WSU to work the ball inside to DeAngelo early and often, his play may well dictate the outcome of the game.

If you can’t make it to the game, it will be broadcast over the Cougar radio network. 

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