COUGARS

It's been about two hours since Washington State's student section rushed the floor following the Cougars' 87-80 victory over 18th-ranked Washington on Sunday night. Our story is done, a rough draft of which we have on the link, and we're ready to head out. Read on.

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• Before we get to our game story, we have a few notes and a couple quotes from Lorenzo Romar we couldn't weave into the story. He lamented the Huskies inability to get back into the lead late with Klay Thompson and DeAngelo Casto on the bench with four fouls (they left at 18:16 and 10:38, respectively, not returning until the 6:09 mark). "We couldn't get over the hump and we had our opportunities," Romar said, "but any game you turn the ball over that many times it's going to make life difficult for yourselves, and if you do it on the road it's going to be even harder." ... Aw, the turnovers. We have some comment about that in the story, but 24 for Washington and 12 for WSU played into the ugly nature of this one. The 47 personal fouls had a part of that as well, with many of them probably whistles that were not needed (the fifth on Casto comes to mind). ... By the way, despite the foul trouble, Casto had 11 points and eight rebounds in 21 minutes. His emergence as an offensive force may be key for the Cougars down the stretch. ... Didn't get this in, but Justin Holiday had 16 points for UW but he was just 4 of 12 from the field. He, Isaiah Thomas and Scott Suggs were 6 of 21 from beyond the arc as the Huskies settled way too much for long shots against WSU's zone. ... And that's it for tonight. Here's the story ...

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PULLMAN – It had just about every thing those packed into Beasley Coliseum and watching on television could have wanted.

Big shots and little plays. Highlight-worthy slams and crucial steals. Foul trouble for the stars, key minutes by the backups, eardrum-straining noise from the crowd.

But, most importantly for most of the 10,579 in Beasley Coliseum on Sunday night, it ended with Washington State on top, 87-80 over the 18th-ranked Washington Huskies.

"Oh-and-four against them, that didn't feel too good," said junior Klay Thompson, who experienced his first win against UW and played a big part in it, especially down the stretch, with a game-high 25 points and four assists.

The last time WSU had defeated the Huskies it came in double overtime on March 8, 2008, and was Derrick Low, Kyle Weaver and Robbie Cowgill's last game in Pullman.

The students didn't rush the court that night, but they did after this one, lifting Faisal Aden – who was Thompson-lite when the real thing was sitting with foul trouble, scoring 15 points and handing out a career-best four assists – on their shoulders.

But the student section had been doing that figuratively all night. They helped the Cougars recover from a seven-point, first-half deficit, helped them build an 11-point edge early in the second half and, when the Huskies closed to within four and WSU struggling to score, helped the Cougars recover their equilibrium.

"I kinda wanted to do it for the crowd," Aden said, "because I knew they really wanted this one bad."

But it was Thompson, Reggie Moore and a WSU zone defense that gave the students, some who lined up for hours before the gates opened, something to scream about, and helped the Cougars raise their record to 15-6, 5-4 in the Pac-10's first half.

The 2-3 zone, which has become a staple of coach Ken Bone's second year, limited the Huskies to 37.1 percent shooting, though that number is a little deceiving. UW, which shoots almost 50 percent from the floor, was 11 of 31 beyond the arc, 35.5 percent, but just 12 of 31 from close range.

Setting the tone was Isaiah Thomas, the engine of the Huskies offense and the Pac-10's leading assist man.

The 5-foot-9 Thomas was able to get by the Cougars' guard out front with ease at times, but couldn't get the ball to go into the basket, missing his first eight shots, finishing 3 of 13, though he had a team-high 19 points after converting 11 of 12 free throws.

But he also had seven turnovers as UW (15-5, atop the Pac-10 at 7-2), which averages less than 12 a game, had 24.

"I felt like some of the turnovers Washington had was because of our defense," Bone said. "But some of them was they didn't complete plays they usually complete."

"They did a great job defensively in that zone," UW coach Lorenzo Romar said. "They got their hands on a lot of our passes, they deflected a lot of our passes. 24 turnovers – no one's done that to us this year."

And Thomas' free throws? That's happened before, but he wasn't alone getting to the line. The teams combined for 59 attempts, with three Cougars – the front line of DeAngelo Casto, Abe Lodwick and backup Brock Motum – and one Husky – Thomas, after the outcome was decided – fouling out.

Guard Venoy Overton and post Aziz N'Diaye, two key Huskies, played 8 and 9 minutes, respectively, due to foul trouble.

Both teams got contributions from the bench, with WSU's Motum picking up a big offensive foul on Thomas down the stretch and Charlie Enquist contributing 9 minutes of solid defense and grabbing three rebounds. Freshman Terrence Ross hit half his shots and chipped in with 14 points for UW.

Moore didn't have to deal with foul trouble, playing 36 minutes and scoring a season-high 18 points. He also gave WSU its 11-point lead when he gathered in Aden's pass and threw down a dunk with 16 minutes, 30 seconds left.

"I knew we were going to win that game when Reggie caught that lob," Thompson said. "I knew we were playing with too much fire and there was no way we were going to let that lead slip away from us."

But no one else did.

And when, with just over 6 minutes left, Moore relaxed on defense and Thomas hit his first shot of the night, a 3-pointer that cut WSU's lead to six, 75-69, Bone called time.

He said he wanted to get Moore a rest, remind him of his defensive responsibilities and bring Thompson, Casto and Lodwick back, all with four fouls.

Thompson took over. He drove, pulled up and hit a 5-footer. After a Casto steal gave the Cougars a key stop, Thompson came off a Patrick Simon screen and hit a 23-footer. With 5:23 left, it was 80-69 and despite Thompson hitting 4 of 9 free throws from there, the Huskies never really threatened.

And Thompson thinks he knows why.

"Physical toughness and mental toughness," he said. "They are both very important if we are going to be successful. We've got to be as tough as we can."

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• That's it for tonight. We'll be back sometime tomorrow morning, whenever I decide to get up. Until then ...

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