WSU Bounces Back Ellison Scores 30 As Cougars Rebound From Thursday’s Heartbreaker With Win
Saturday’s Pacific-10 Conference matchup against Arizona State wasn’t the first test of Washington State’s resiliency this basketball season, but it was certainly the most stern.
And the Cougars, despite a few early sputters brought on by a drained emotions tank, passed it brilliantly by turning back 15th-ranked Arizona State 84-71 in front of a Friel Court crowd of 7,533.
Donminic Ellison broke out of a prolonged shooting slump to score a career-high 30 points and Mark Hendrickson added 19 points and a game-high seven rebounds as WSU (9-7 Pac-10, 15-10 overall) bounced back from Thursday night’s demoralizing double-overtime loss to 12th-ranked Arizona to fan its flickering postseason tournament hopes once more.
Washington State coach Kevin Eastman marveled afterward at his young team’s ability to pull itself off the emotional scrap heap and take it to an excellent ASU team (11-6, 21-8) that is an NCAA Tournament lock.
“That was all about players,” Eastman said. “I know I’ve said that in a couple of other games, but I’ve never meant it more from my heart than right now.
“Coaches don’t have as much to do with a game like this as they probably want to believe they do. We have no magical cure for getting them back up. We said a couple of things that might have helped, but the players have to do that for themselves.”
It helped that many of the calls that went against WSU Thursday night came back to the Cougars in this one. Three Sun Devils, including starters Ron Riley and Quincy Brewer, fouled out, and two others finished the game with four fouls.
WSU shot 39 free throws to ASU’s 18 and the Cougars were whistled for only 16 fouls to the Sun Devils’ 29. It left ASU coach Bill Frieder feeling a bit mistreated and unwilling to discuss the outcome with reporters.
“It was such an emotional game that it is best that neither me nor my players comment,” Frieder said. “We tried to beat them in spite of everything.”
Frieder was particularly incensed over a shot-clock incident that led to a crucial 3-pointer by Ellison with 2:17 left in the game. WSU was leading 71-69, but the Sun Devils had defensed the shot clock down to 5 seconds when they knocked the ball out of bounds.
ASU also got a hand on the inbounds pass, creating a few seconds of chaos, and when Ellison finally controlled the ball out on the right wing, he treated it like a live grenade. But his hurried shot went in, and there were still 3 seconds left on the shot clock when he released the ball.
Frieder, noting the shot clock had not started immediately, made several runs at the official scorer’s table and pleaded his case with the officials, but the basket stood.
And from that point, WSU outscored the Devils 10-2 to make the margin of victory a bit deceiving.
Isaac Burton led ASU’s scoring with 20 points and Riley added 19 before fouling out. Mario Bennett, the Sun Devils’ 6-foot-9 junior center, was held to just five field-goal attempts and 10 points - almost nine below his average.
Hendrickson did most of the defensive work on Bennett, who had 24 points and 14 rebounds in ASU’s 87-60 rout of the Cougars in Tempe, Ariz. But he received some excellent sag help from the perimeter whenever the ball entered the low post.
Eastman said the defensive strategy to play behind Bennett rather than front him - like the Cougars did in the first meeting - was crucial in limiting the number of shots Bennett took.
“Now that I’ve gone through the league one time, I have a better sense of how we should do what to whom,” Eastman explained. “We fronted (Bennett) down there and he dominated the offensive glass - among other things. So, we just decided we need to go to our double-down game.”
Riley did his best to shoot the Cougars out of their double-team tactics by hitting three tough 3-pointers in the first half. But Eastman stuck with his game plan and made it pay off.
“For a while there, though, I was real nervous,” he said, “because they were really bagging the 3s. But we felt that we had to make Bennett a ballhandler and passer, not a shooter.”
WSU came out understandably flat and fell behind 17-10 after turning the ball over on six of eight possessions during a 5-minute scoring drought.
But a couple of defensive pressures led to easy baskets and sparked a 10-3 WSU run that tied the game at 20.
“Not only were we mentally down, but we were physically down at the start,” said Hendrickson. “A lot of guys were still sore and beat up from Thursday night.
“But the crowd helped. And after a few possessions, we loosened up and got back in the flow.”
It was the final home game of the season for the Cougars, who head to the Bay Area this week to close out the regular season with a Thursday night game at Stanford and a Saturday afternoon matchup at California.
A sweep would give the Cougars 16 wins and almost surely lock up a National Invitation Tournament berth. But it might also give them at least a tie for fourth place in the standings and a shot at the NCAAs.
“Whatever position (the win) puts us in, so be it,” Eastman said. “We need to earn our way in, not talk our way in.”
Washington St. 84, Arizona St. 71
ARIZONA STATE (21-8)
Riley 7-15 0-0 19, Brewer 1-1 1-2 3, Bennett 3-5 4-9 10, Burton 7-13 4-5 20, Capers 2-4 0-0 4, Bacon 1-2 2-2 4, Hargrays 0-2 0-0 0, Veal 4-8 0-0 11, Zaletel 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 25-50 11-18 71.
WASHINGTON STATE (15-10)
Hendrickson 4-7 9-10 19, Mack 2-5 1-4 5, Fontaine 3-5 0-1 6, Antrum 3-7 6-8 15, Ellison 9-13 9-10 30, Griffin 1-2 2-2 4, Corkrum 1-2 3-4 5, Vik 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 23-41 30-39 84.
Halftime-Washington St. 39, Arizona St. 33. 3-Point goals- Arizona St. 10-24 (Riley 5-9, Veal 3-5, Burton 2-6, Capers 0-2, Hargrays 0-2), Washington St. 8-10 (Ellison 3-3, Antrum 3-4, Hendrickson 2-2, Fontanine 0-1). Fouled out-Brewer, Bacon, Riley. Rebounds-Arizona St. 22 (Bennett 4), Washington St. 28 (Hendrickson 7). Assists-Arizona St. 16 (Capers 6), Washington St. 14 (Ellison 5). Total fouls-Arizona St. 29, Washington St. 16. Technical-Brewer. A-7,533.