Report: Washington State wing Jaylen Wells to enter transfer portal

Apr. 25—PULLMAN — Washington State's basketball team appears to be losing another player to the transfer portal.

Rising senior wing Jaylen Wells will be moving on from Pullman, according to a report from ESPN NBA draft analyst Jonathan Givony, depriving the Cougars of their third-leading scorer from last season's NCAA Tournament team.

With the departure from Wells, who averaged 12.6 points on 42% 3-point shooting in one season as a Cougar, WSU has lost its top eight scorers from last year's team, including 12 players overall to the portal.

The list includes guard Myles Rice (portal, Indiana); forward Isaac Jones (graduation); wing Andrej Jakimovski (portal, Colorado); centers Oscar Cluff (portal, South Dakota State) and Rueben Chinyelu (portal, Florida); guard Jabe Mullins (portal, Montana State); and guards Dylan Darling (portal, Idaho State) and Ben Olesen (graduation).

Cougars still in the portal include guard Joseph Yesufu, forward Spencer Mahoney, wing Kymany Houinsou and forward AJ Rohosy.

At the beginning of the month, Wells entered his name in the NBA draft, which gave him the ability to retain his college eligibility. He seemed poised to return to WSU if he withdrew.

The 6-8 wing, who transferred after two seasons at Division II Sonoma (California) State ahead of last season, authored one of WSU's best moments of the season, a four-point play to topple then-No. 4 Arizona on the road in February. He shot 44% on 3-pointers in conference play, had a 61% true shooting percentage, shot 86% from the free-throw line and pulled down 4.6 rebounds per game.

Wells set a career high in points in the win over Arizona, scoring 27 points, which he duplicated in a win over UCLA in early March. He scored 20 points in his final game at WSU, a loss to second-seeded Iowa State in the NCAA Tournament Round of 32.

New WSU coach David Riley might have a hard time finding someone to replicate Wells' production, but he has landed three players from his former squad, Eastern Washington: wing LeJuan Watts and senior centers Ethan Price and Dane Erikstrup.