Huskies denied by Cougars, 74-64
LOS ANGELES – Maybe if they hadn’t had to face Washington State, the Washington Huskies might have been able to pull off their improbable goal of winning the Pac-10 men’s basketball tournament.
But the Cougars are a little more used to this improbable thing — they’ve been doing it all season.
And when push came to shove on a Thursday night threatening to turn into Friday morning — the game started at 9:20 p.m. and didn’t end until 11:15— WSU pulled on that reserve to pull out another win over its cross-state rival, 74-64 at Staples Center.
Washington State has now won five in a row against the Huskies, and this one hurt UW the most. It put an unquestionable end to Washington’s hopes of getting a fourth straight NCAA tournament bid.
Not that it came easily.
Much like the teams’ last meeting, on Valentine’s Day in Seattle, the Huskies hung close most of the game, even leading by four at halftime.
But when winning time came in the final minutes, it was the Cougars (25-6) who again knew what to do. And like the game in Seattle, it was sophomore guard Taylor Rochestie, a transfer from Tulane, who threw the ultimate daggers.
Rochestie, who had scored a then-career-high 16 in WSU’s 65-61 win on Feb. 14, had a game-high 20 Thursday night. That included seven straight in the final two minutes, most notably a three-pointer and a running bank shot on consecutive possessions.
And in yet another improbable for the second-seeded Cougars, they are now the favorite to win the tournament, as the highest seed left after UCLA’s loss to California earlier in the day.
Washington State will face USC at 8:50 p.m. tonight in the semifinals.
The Huskies (19-13) will head home and wait for 6 p.m. Sunday, when the field for the NIT will be announced.
There seems little doubt the Huskies will be invited, though for 20 minutes Thursday, UW’s NCAA tournament dreams were still alive.
The Huskies led 36-32 at halftime getting a sizeable lift from an unexpected source — backup big man Artem Wallace. With Spencer Hawes sidelined after two fouls, Wallace came on to score eight points in 14 minutes hitting 4 of 6 shots, one on a spin move through three Cougars defenders.
Wallace hadn’t scored in 20 minutes in the first two games of the season against WSU, including a start in a 75-47 loss in Pullman on Jan. 20 when Hawes was out with a sprained ankle.
The game started late after preceding USC-Stanford matchup went into overtime, the Trojans winning 83-79.
The Huskies still appeared to miss the bell, however, coming out a little slow and falling behind 9-2 four minutes into the game. The Cougars built the lead on a couple of jumpers by Derrick Low, who led WSU with 12 points in the first half in showing that he may be past a mini late-season slump.
But Quincy Pondexter (a team-high 10 first-half points), Wallace and Jon Brockman quickly got the Huskies going, and a putback by Wallace gave UW its first lead at 17-15 with 8:35 left in the first half.
They didn’t give up the lead the rest of the half, and the lead grew to 28-21 when Ryan Appleby capped a 7-0 run with one of his three long first-half three-pointers.
Two jumpers by Ivory Clark — a former starter and now a backup called on to play 12 minutes when Aron Baynes picked up two quick fouls — kept the Cougars close. Foul trouble also bit WSU guard Kyle Weaver, who played just nine first-half minutes after two quick whistles.
Washington State had led at halftime of the two earlier wins against UW this season, by 11 and eight points.
But it wasn’t a completely unfamiliar spot for WSU, which had won seven of eight games this year when trailing at halftime.
And the Cougars came out after the break looking revived, going on a 13-5 run the first four minutes of the second half to reclaim the lead.
The lead grew to 52-45, and WSU’s hex on the Huskies seemed unconquerable. But the Huskies used a 9-2 run to tie the score, keyed by five points from Justin Dentmon.
The Cougars used a 7-2 run, built solely on free throws, to take the lead for good. Two by Rochestie put WSU ahead 63-58 with 3:08 left.
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