A quick look at WSU’s next game
COUGARS
One more game for Washington State on this road trip, the first of the Pac-10 season. We have a short look at the Cougars' day. Read on.
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• Here's the short story ...
TEMPE, Ariz. – As Washington State University's practice Saturday wound down, the Cougars were in a playful mood.
Freshman guard Reggie Moore, who led WSU to a 78-76 Pac-10 victory at Arizona on Friday night, was humming the ESPN highlights song. The "dadada, dadada," was for redshirt freshman James Watson, who had appeared on the sports channel the night before, part of the day's No. 1 highlight.
Too bad it was Derrick Williams' left-handed dunk over Watson in the second half that earned the honor.
"I kind of messed up on that," admitted Watson, who knew the 6-foot-8 Williams' drive was coming, after WSU had walked-through the inbounds play earlier in the day.
"I didn't think he dunked it," Watson said Saturday. "It was with his left hand. When he did it, I heard it from the crowd. I thought 'he didn't.' "
The second half of the highlight? DeAngelo Casto scoring the game winner off a Moore assist with .1 second left.
No wonder the Cougars are relaxed, despite having played three down-to-the-buzzer conference games. They will take a 12-3 overall record and a 2-1 Pac-10 mark into this morning's matchup at Wells Fargo Arena against Arizona State.
"We work on game situations every day," Bone said of WSU ability to compete late in tough games despite playing mainly sophomores and freshmen.
"We might have three, four, five mini-games per day. I think the guys are learning how to be experienced somewhat beyond their years because of what we're trying to do in practice to simulate what can happen in games."
Arizona State, which opened conference with two losses in Los Angeles, dumped Washington 68-51 at home Friday night, raising its record to 11-5.
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• That's it for tonight. We'll be back in the morning. Until then ...
