Statistically, this is where the Cougs won the game. Junior center ND Okafor had the game of his life, scoring a career-high 27 points on just 14 shots, which included making a perfectly respectable 3 of 5 at the line.

He was an absolute menace around the basket, and it wasn’t like he was simply converting easy putbacks on rebounds: He dominated the lane with an array of post moves, using his superior strength to bully his way to the rim for relatively easy finishes — many of which he didn’t always easily finish last year. His growth has been remarkable, as he’s improved in nearly ever facet in his second year in the program. Overall, WSU shot 70% from 2 and rebounded 34% of their own misses — both season highs.

On the flip side, SUU generally struggled to generate much in the paint, especially in the second half. Overall they shot 53% on 2s, which isn’t an eye-popping number, but it’s the lowest rate WSU has allowed this season. The Cougs also allowed just 5 offensive rebounds, a rate of 17% for the Thunderbirds.

Junior forward Eemeli Yalaho deserves his own special shoutout for his contributions off the bench in this regard: He scored 14 points (3-of-4 on 2s and 2-of-3 on 3s) with 11 rebounds (5 offensive, 6 defensive). After an extremely rough start to the season, he has really come around to be a big contributor.

It’s always great when a coach’s offensive and defensive priorities produce results that go hand in hand.

True freshman guard Ace Glass is showing us exactly why he was recruited by Buzz Williams at Texas A&M. The reason I said above that the Cougs “statistically” won the game in the paint is because emotionally they won this game when Glass came in and supercharged the Cougs’ energy.

The beginning of the contest was a slog, with WSU trailing by 6 after the first 7 minutes. Glass — who had come into the game just a a minute before that — almost singlehandedly turned it around:

Friends, that’s a pretty damn good shift! The Cougs had established control, and they more or less extended that lead throughout the rest of the night. That included another strong shift early in the second half, subbing in at about the same time:

Plus/minus is a notoriously noisy stat, but it’s not an accident that Glass led the team at plus-31 despite playing only 22 minutes.

Riley has pretty clearly tried to bring Glass along somewhat slowly, continuing to start senior Spaniard Adria Rodriguez even as Glass has pretty thoroughly outplayed him. On a night where WSU dominated, Rodriguez was once again notable for his struggles: Just 4 points on 2-of-5 shooting (all 2s) while missing all 3 free throws. He did have a few steals and made a handful of nice passes that led to assists, but his offensive rating for the game was just 79 on a night when no other Cougar was under 102 (Rihards Vavers) and every other Coug was over 122.

The Cougs’ other primary guard, Jerone Morton, quietly had another nice game: 10 points, 3 rebounds, 5 assists, 0 turnovers, 2 blocks, 1 steal. The Cougs were very good when he and Glass were on the floor together, and that’s probably because Morton is a really nice all-around player when he doesn’t have to do too much.

Glass is very obviously the most talented guard on the roster, and he’s producing the most. One has to wonder when Riley finally relegates Rodriguez to the bench and just lets Glass do his thing, freshman mistakes be damned.

Two minutes into a game in which WSU was already without sophomore wing Tomas Thrastarson due to injury (probably picked up late against Washington on Friday), the Cougs’ best player this season, Emmanuel Ugbo, rolled his ankle and was done for the night. It looked quite bad, and he was in street clothes by halftime, putting very little weight on his injured leg. That’s WSU’s two leading scorers.

The positive is that the Cougs blew out SUU anyway. The downside, of course, is how that affects them going forward. Nobody seems to be sounding alarm bells for Thrastarson, so I’m going to assume he’s available next week when the Cougs travel to Hawaii. But Ugbo … that looked bad. I’m not a doctor, but I won’t be surprised if his absence is measured in weeks, not days.

The Cougars will be on the islands for the Maui Invitational, a super fun tournament that has become a staple of ESPN’s Thanksgiving week programming, which will spotlight the program. They open against the hosts, Division 2 Chaminade, on Monday. It’s a dangerous game because the hosts will always be up for it, but it’s obviously a game the Cougars should win. If they do, they’ll face the winner of Arizona State and Texas.

The game tips off at 6 p.m. PT and will be broadcast on ESPNU. ASU/Texas tips off about 30 minutes after that on ESPN2.