Marcus Flowers scored 22 points Sunday as Washington State established a 19-point halftime lead and then turned back a furious SMU comeback in the second half of a 75-63 win in the second round of the NIT in Dallas.
TJ Bamba added 13 points for the Cougars (21-14), which will visit BYU in the quarterfinals. Efe Abogidi hit for 12, including a vicious late dunk that helped secure the outcome.
Washington State hit just 35.4 percent of its field goals, but connected on 23 of 26 free throws.
Kendric Davis led the Mustangs’ comeback attempt after halftime, scoring 24 of his game-high 30 points in the second half. Davis was 10 of 10 at the foul line, but the only other SMU player to reach double figures was Michael Weathers with 16.
Davis connected on three free throws with 3:11 left to draw SMU (24-9) within 62-58. A Weathers layup with 2:36 remaining made it a 64-60 game, but Abogidi drove from the right wing and unleashed a vicious dunk over Weathers to initiate a game-clinching 11-3 Cougars’ run.
DJ Rodman, Bamba and Abogidi each sank a pair of free throws in the last 74 seconds to seal the outcome. The Mustangs managed just a Davis 3-pointer in the final 2:36.
The main storyline in the first half was Washington State’s defense and rebounding. The Cougars totally stifled SMU, almost always finishing defensive possessions with a rebound, and then frequently got multiple shots on offense until they scored.
Washington State held the Mustangs to four points in the game’s first 8:06 and then established its working margin even further after that. Abogidi’s 3-pointer gave it a double-figure lead for the first time with 9:43 left in the half at 19-7.
Flowers drained a jumper and a 3-pointer in the final two minutes of the half to up the margin to 19 points and Noah Williams converted a pair of free throws with 10 seconds left. That set the Cougars’ cushion at 39-20 at the break.
–Field Level Media
