Despite another rally, WSU falls again

COUGARS

Once more Washington State fell behind. Once more the Cougars rallied. Once more they fell short. Thursday night the Oregon State zones trapped them into first-half oblivion. But the second half, with the court spread better, the ball moved quicker, the Cougars shot their way back into, led by Klay Thompson who was 6 of 10 after halftime, including 4 of 6 from beyond the arc. Still, with Reggie Moore unable to buy a bucket all night - he was 0 of 8 from the floor, making him 11 of his last 44 - there proved to be too little firepower down the stretch - though Moore hit double figures thanks to 10 free throws. The long version of the game story is on the link. Read on.

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• Here’s the game story …

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Same show, different venue.

For the second time in as many games, the Washington State University men’s basketball team fell behind early. By a lot.

For the second time in as many games, the Cougars rallied. Quickly.

And for the second time in as many games, WSU lost.

Thursday night it was in the Willamette Valley, in venerable Gill Coliseum, mirroring last Saturday’s home loss to Washington.

This one was three-points closer, with the Beavers holding on 59-55 before 6,507, but no less painful.

“It was just tough, the same thing as last week,” said senior Nik Koprivica, who helped the Cougars rally with a couple of second-half 3-pointers propelling him to 12 points. “We can’t get let ourselves get behind so much and chase teams back.

“We proved we can come back, but it’s not easy. These teams are too good.”

The hole the Cougars dug was even deeper than the one against the Dawgs, as they trailed by 18 at the half and 19 just 41 seconds later. The deficit was built by turnovers, 15 of them in the first 20 minutes, matching WSU’s point total, its lowest for a half this season.

“When you turn it over 15 times in the first half, you kind of set yourself up (to lose),” WSU coach Ken Bone said. “And a number of those turnovers also led to easy baskets for Oregon State. It wasn’t just the turnover, it was the easy layup or dunk on the other end. That hurts.”

“We kind of came out and respected their defense way too much,” Koprivica said.

So were the Cougars scared to attack Oregon State’s 1-3-1 and 2-3 zone traps?

“It looked like that at times,” Bone answered.

But WSU didn’t play scared in the first 10 minutes of the second half. Or passive. And the biggest change was in the Cougars’ leading scorer, Klay Thompson.

“The first half I thought I was just way too passive,” said Thompson, who took just one shot in the opening half, a breakaway layup following a steal. “I don’t want to be selfish, but that’s just not being aggressive. I thought I was just standing around too much.

“The second half, I thought I was looking for my shot more.”

And he found it. He took seven shots over the next 6:20, hitting four, including three 3-pointers. When Koprivica followed a Thompson miss with 13:37 left, WSU was within two, 40-38.

But the Cougars couldn’t get over the hump. Despite four chances.

A Thompson turnover and one of two free throws by DeAngelo Casto – cutting the OSU lead to 40-39 – preceded misses by Casto and Reggie Moore on back-to-back possessions.

Given space, Oregon State went on a 7-0 run and, with 8:21 left, WSU was forced to claw back once more.

“It was a pivotal time,” Bone said, “because we had our opportunities and we didn’t take advantage of those opportunities.”

But the Cougars did scratch back into it, putting together a defense-fueled six-point spurt – capped by Thompson’s 15-foot baseline fallaway, the last of his 18 points – to cut the lead to 53-52 with 59.4 seconds left.

Roeland Schaftenaar answered with a post move before Moore hit two free throws – he was 10 of 11 as WSU converted 19 of 23 from the line - with 33.6 left.

The Cougars put Jared Cunningham, the freshman who ignited OSU’s first-half offense with six steals and 15 points, on the line. Twenty-seven seconds remained. And Cunningham, who finished with eight steals and a career-high 20 points on 7-of-8 shooting, missed – badly.

Too badly. The 6-foot-11 Schaftenaar got two fingers on the hard carom, it bounded out to Seth Tarver and WSU had to foul again. The senior didn’t miss, hitting both for a 57-54 lead.

“It was a terrible miss,” Casto said. “It wasn’t like anybody didn’t block out. … Those are plays you’ve got (to make).”

The Cougars tried to get Thompson free for a 3-pointer, but after 10 seconds of being unsuccessful, Moore started to drive. He was fouled by Seth Tarver with 9.3 seconds remaining.

He hit the first and missed the second. Joe Burton grabbed the rebound – his seventh – and quickly got the ball to Calvin Haynes. Haynes raced upcourt, avoiding a foul and by the time Marcus Capers fouled Cunningham, only 1.6 seconds remained.

And Oregon State, which is still a game under .500 overall at 14-15, would move to 8-9 in Pac-10 play.

Despite the loss, which dropped WSU to 16-13 overall and into a tie with Oregon for last in the Pac-10 at 6-11, the Cougars can still avoid the Wednesday Pac-10 play-in game between the 8 and 9 seeds.

If Stanford (7-10) loses to Cal on Saturday, and WSU can find a way to get past Oregon, WSU would earn the seventh seed, due to the other Pac-10 results Thursday.

Bone, for his part, just wants to avoid a repeat of the last two games.

“I’m anxious to see at some point, and it’s getting pretty close to the end of the year, can we put 40 minutes, or real close to 40 minutes, together,” Bone said. “Because, when we do, we’ll be pretty good.”

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• That’s all for tonight. We’ll be back in the morning with our usual next-day post. I want to leave you with one thought. The 15 points WSU scored in the first half were the fewest an OSU opponent has scored this year. The 40 the Cougars had in the second? The most for an OSU foe. Interesting. Until tomorrow …