The 2010 season started off with a bang for the Cougar basketball team in their 89-49 victory against Lewis-Clark State, with newcomer Faisel Aden leading the way on offense.

An estimated 3,700 fans were at Friel Court to see the junior college transfer show off his pure shooting stroke. Aden scored 15 points in the first half and 22 for the game. In all, he made 9-of-13 shots.
“I always play with confidence,” Aden said. “Growing up, I always played with confidence and that’s just where I came from.

“I think I played good. It felt really good actually to be out there finally. We’ve been playing each other for so long and to play somebody else and the competition was pretty good too.” The Cougars’ bench played a big role in the win, pouring in 44 points with 22 of them coming from Aden. In about 15 minutes of playing time each, sophomore Brock Motum scored 11 off the bench and freshman Patrick Simon added seven.

Head coach Ken Bone said the team has built the depth that he is looking for, and it was made clear with Aden’s performance.

“Well Faisel showed that tonight,” Bone said. “Sometimes he makes it look effortless. He’s a very good shooter, he has a nice little shot fake and he knows how to create shots for himself. He’s one of the first guys off the bench.” Junior Klay Thompson also had an impressive evening, dropping 21 points on 8-of-12 shooting in just 24 minutes of playing time. Thompson was stellar from behind the three-point line, going 4-of-5, and said although the team only has one game under its belt, he can see differences from last season.

“We’re a year older and a lot of us are taking our game to another level,” Thompson said. “With Faisel, now we have another big-time scoring threat from the wing so we’re just a lot more balanced this year, and it allows me to be a lot more versatile.” Bone said he was more impressed with the extras, not just the scoring, that Thompson brought to the stat sheet Friday night.

“He comes up with seven rebounds, two blocked shots, two steals, an assist,” Bone said. “He’s not just a shooter, he’s finding other ways to contribute to our team.” Meanwhile in the post, starting center DeAngelo Casto added to the offensive fireworks by scoring 18 points while adding four rebounds. Casto played only 16 minutes, but Bone said he liked what he saw out of his junior center.

“DeAngelo was really solid in the paint,” Bone said. “He was 7-of-8 from the field, and I liked the way he was under control and played at his own speed. If he didn’t have good balance or the shot he wanted, he was patient and had some nice shot fakes and pivots to create a good open shot for himself.” Another aspect in the teams blowout win against the Warriors was starting point guard Reggie Moore, who went 0-3 from the floor, finishing the game with no points. However, in the eyes of Bone, Moore had a great evening spreading the ball around and not trying to force anything on offense.

“What I was impressed with was that Reggie Moore went out and here’s a guy who was on the all Pac-10 freshman team last year, and he doesn’t score a point,” Bone said. “But he has 7 assists, no turnovers and he was very involved in the game but scoring was not a priority for him tonight because he got other guys the ball that was scoring. I think that’s very important for our team’s success, that unselfish attitude.”