Hard Road To Cougs’ Glory WSU’s 94-85 Win Over Oregon State Easiest Part Of Road Trip From Hell

Life on the road has been a pain for Washington State all season.

But Thursday night, the Cougars shook off the effects of some nightmarish travel problems and eased a bunch of frustrations by holding off Oregon State 94-85 in front of a disappointing crowd of 5,916 at Gill Coliseum.

Mark Hendrickson put together his 11th double-double of the season by scoring 22 points and pulling down 11 rebounds, and teammates Shamon Antrum and Isaac Fontaine each added 24 points as the Cougars raised their record to 7-5 in the Pacific-10 Conference and 12-8 overall.

Oregon State, which got 25 points from Mustapha Hoff, fell to 3-8 and 6-14 and assured itself of a fourth consecutive losing season in coach Jim Anderson’s final year. Brent Barry was held to 14 points before fouling out with 1:32 remaining.

The road win was only the second for WSU this season and its first against a Pac-10 opponent.

“I thought it was a significant win for us,” Cougars coach Kevin Eastman said, “because we had not won on the road (in the Pac-10) and they (the Beavers) have played teams very tough here.

“They’re very, very capable.”

The Cougars had their scheduled flight out of Pullman canceled Wednesday morning because of bad weather and were unable to make it to Lewiston to catch a later flight because of a road closure.

That forced the team to bus to Spokane, where the Cougars booked the last 19 seats on a late-night flight to Portland. After arriving in the Rose City a little before 11 p.m., the players were forced to split up and stay at two motels because no advance reservations had been made.

They practiced in Portland Thursday afternoon and bused to Corvallis just before game time.

“I’m sure if we took the top five teams in the nation, one of them has had a difficult time getting somewhere at some point,” Eastman said. “You just have to play through it.

“It wasn’t the best of ways to get here, but this win obviously made it a much nicer trip so far.”

WSU left for Eugene, Ore., after the game and will face Oregon Saturday night at McArthur Court in a Pac-10 matchup that has significant postseason implications.

The Cougars showed no signs of fatigue in holding off several late OSU charges. They shot 57.8 percent from the field and made 19 of 20 free throws in the final 5 minutes.

Fontaine accounted for 11 of those free throws - and the only miss. For the game, WSU made 35 of 43 foul shots, which left Anderson lamenting his team’s defensive effort.

“We’re just not tough enough to stop people,” he said. “It seemed like we’d make some runs, but every time we’d get (the deficit) to three or four, we’d do something not so good.

“Then we had to foul people at the end to get a few more possessions.”

WSU used a 12-1 run midway through the first half to distance itself slightly from the Beavers, but the key stretch of the opening period came just 3 minutes before intermission, when Hendrickson and Fontaine each picked up his third foul less than 15 seconds apart.

Yet, with their two scoring leaders on the bench, the Cougars managed to build on the 33-29 advantage they had, taking a 42-35 lead into halftime.

They then blitzed the Beavers with a 5-0 run to start the second half and withstood Oregon State rallies that cut their lead to 78-74 with 2:58 left and 86-83 with 30 seconds remaining.

The Cougars hurt themselves with

a season-high 24 turnovers, but compensated with three players scoring more than 20 points for the first time this year.

Donminic Ellison, who committed eight of the turnovers, also made five assists and scored 12 points. And Eastman got solid play off the bench from senior center David Vik, who scored three points and grabbed four rebounds.

WSU 94, OSU 85

WASHINGTON ST.

Hendrickson 5-8 12-13 22, Mack 4-7 1-2 9, Fontaine 6-10 11-12 24, Ellison 2-4 8-8 12, Antrum 8-14 3-8 24, Griffin 0-0 0-0 0, Vik 1-2 0-0 3, Daniel 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 26-45 35-43 94.

OREGON ST (6-14)

Barry 4-11 6-6 14, Hoff 7-16 11-12 25, Heredia 0-2 0-0 0, Williams 4-12 0-0 10, S. Brown 7-12 4-4 18, Vetter 4-5 0-0 9, J. Brown 4-7 1-2 9, Boline 0-2 0-0 0, Edwards 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 30-67 22-24 85.

Halftime-Washington St. 42, Oregon St. 35. 3-Point goals- WSU 7-11 (Antrum 5-8, Vik 1-1, Fontaine 1-2), OSU 3-13 (Williams 2-4, Vetter 1-2, Boline 0-1, S. Brown 0-1, Barry 0-5) Fouled out-Mack, Barry, J. Brown. Rebounds-WSU St 34 (Hendrickson 11), OSU 30 (J. Brown 6). Assists-WSU 13 (Ellison 5), OSU St 12 (Hoff 3). Total fouls-WSU 23, OSU 27. A-5,916.