COUGARS

FROM EUGENE -- WSU tried everything it could to prevent the Ducks from shooting the lights out again. And again, nothing worked. But the Cougars played considerably better today than they have on the road this season, and can head home with a sense of progress. Read on for our game in review.

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PLAYER  OF THE GAME -- Based on my Twitter feed, WSU fans would likely pay for E.J. Singler's cap and gown if it meant he could graduate immediately. He scored 23 points on 8-12 shooting, making 4-6 of his 3-pointers and all three of his free throws. Singler does a great job of getting open, and the Cougars were just too slow to contest his shots today.

PLAY OF THE GAME -- Garrett Sim's 3-pointer to put Oregon ahead 70-64 with 2:40 remaining. Singler made a nice pass to get it to him, and as coach Ken Bone said, "he had a lot of time to set up and shoot that thing, too." The Cougars made a couple more baskets after that to keep it semi-interesting, but Sim's shot wound up being the nail.

KEY STAT -- The Ducks made 15 of their 18 free-throw attempts -- and 17 of those came in the second half, when the Ducks entered the bonus rather early thanks to some very difficult offensive foul calls against WSU. Didn't say bad. Just tough calls to take.

QUOTABLE -- "I think we showed that we can compete with two good teams. Did it on the road. There’sbeen some adjustments having Faisal gone, but I think we’re starting to adjust to that and find our own identity without him and hopefully we are continuing to get better. I feel like we are. I think we had a pretty good weekend of basketball." -- Ken Bone

NEXT UP -- Thursday vs. Arizona, 6 p.m. The Wildcats outlasted Utah at home on Saturday, and are still very much in contention for the Pac-12 title. Arizona beat WSU 85-61 in Tucson on Jan. 26.

Christian Caple can be reached at christianc@spokesman.com. Twitter: @ChristianCaple

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