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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

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WSU wins 72-70


COUGARS

Behind the support of 15,341 in Key Arena and numerous free throws in overtime, Washington State rallied to stop LSU on Tuesday night. The Cougars couldn't hold on to an eight-point second half lead but got the last basket in regulation to force 5 extra minutes. In that period, WSU fell behind but Reggie Moore's 3-point play brought them the lead and they held it with tight defense and just good enough free-throw shooting. Klay Thompson led the Cougars with 26 points. Bo Spencer led LSU with 23 and Tasmin Mitchell added 18 ... In the end of regulation, LSU's Spencer made the big plays, including hitting a fallaway 15-footer with 45 seconds left to give LSU the lead at 62-60. But Chris Bass missed two free throws that could have clinched it with 19.8 seconds left and Moore drove, found DeAngelo Casto, who fumbled, recovered and put in his 12th point of the game to tie it. Spencer was stripped and after a timeout and a clock review, WSU's Moore tried a prayer that missed. ... The Cougars lack of depth showed in this one, as they seemed tired and sluggish down the stretch. Point guard Reggie Moore played the entire game and seemed to wear down as the clock wound down. ... A pretty darn good college basketball game marred by some pretty darn poor college officiating from Michael Irving, Mike Scyphers and Don McAllister. Not biased or one-sided, just really poor. The result, both coaches received technical fouls and the game was choppy. Plus, the teams combined to shoot more than 60 free throws. ... We'll be back in about 90 minutes with the game story.



Vince Grippi
Vince Grippi is a freelance local sports blogger for spokesman.com. He also contributes to the SportsLink Blog.

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