WSU falls to UCLA, 58-54 in OT

• When Ken Bone told Ben Loewen last night he was going to start in Klay Thompson's place, he texted some buddies, called his high school coach Glenn Williams and then tried to get to sleep. It was tough. But after being introduced with his mom and dad prior to the game – Loewen is a junior athletically but a senior academically, so he's moving on – and then with the rest of the starters a few minutes later, he said he started to calm down. But he was never as laid back as the Bruins were for the first 20 minutes. Talked about beach cool, UCLA was nearly comatose, especially on defense. The Cougars had 12 baskets in the first half. Seven of them were layups, five of those coming off back screens or cuts that were almost uncontested. It was the best execution by a WSU offense this year and it came without Reggie Moore or Thompson. … But neither would last. UCLA woke up and WSU wore down. Marcus Capers played 44 minutes. Faisal Aden, who was woefully bad shooting the ball, 42 minutes. DeAngelo Casto, who had to battle 600-pound Josh Smith, oops 325-pound Josh Smith, much of the night, played 39 minutes. Maybe that explains, in part, the Cougars' 8-of-14 free-throw effort. … Reeves Nelson was a beast again, hitting 10 of 13 shots, grabbing eight rebounds, and scoring a game-high 23 points. … Brock Motum led WSU with 15 points and Aden added 14 – on 4 of 17 shooting – as WSU played just seven guys and only Loewen didn't score. … Four a 4 minute stretch in the second half, the Cougars had Loewen and Will DiIorio, two walk-ons, on the floor at the same time. UCLA outscored WSU 6-4 in that stretch. … If you want more, here's my story.

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• That's it for now. We'll be back in the morning with more – and in a few minutes with a football post. Until then …