College Basketball Tonight
WSU at Arizona
The Cougars (9-8 overall, 2-7 in the Pacific-10 Conference) return home to Friel Court to take on the Beavers (3-15, 1-8). Tipoff is set for 7 p.m.
At a glance: WSU seems to have drawn the ideal opponent as it attempts to snap a rare four-game home losing streak. Oregon State is the only team in the Pac-10 with a worse league record than the Cougars and the Beavers didn’t put up all that much of a fight the first time the teams met, in Corvallis, Ore. WSU won that game 76-62, and is favored by 15 in tonight’s rematch. The big concern for Cougars coach Kevin Eastman is that the Beavers have been playing relatively well lately. Couple that with the fact that the Cougars are still shooting the ball horribly and there seems to be some potential for an upset. Don’t look for the Beavers, who have no starter taller than 6-foot-7, to shut WSU’s Mark Hendrickson down the way Arizona did last Saturday, however.
Leaders: Oregon State: Rob Williams 10.7 ppg, Sonny Benjamin 4.3 rpg; J.D. Vetter 9.8 ppg. Washington State: Isaac Fontaine 18.8 ppg, 6.3 rpg; Mark Hendrickson 17.0 ppg, 9.7 rpg; Donminic Ellison 12.7 ppg, 5.6 apg.
TV/radio: No live television; KXLY (920 AM) Spokane, KCLX (1450 AM) Colfax, KWSU (1250 AM) Pullman, KCVL (1240 AM) Colville, KZFN (106.0 FM) Moscow, KORD (870 AM) Tri-Cities, KBSN (1470 AM) Moses Lake, KKRT (900 AM) Wenatchee, with Bud Nameck, 6:30 p.m.
Pepperdine at Gonzaga
Gonzaga (14-6, 5-3 in West Coast Conference) takes on the Waves (9-11, 2-6) in a WCC match at 7 p.m. in the Martin Centre.
At a glance The Bulldogs have won six straight against Pepperdine and are coming off a 78-66 win over the Waves last Saturday in Malibu. GU owns a 14-game winning streak at home, longest in the WCC. It’s a chance for a milestone of a different sort, too, as coach Dan Fitzgerald will seek his 100th career WCC victory. Only Santa Clara’s Carroll Williams (165) has reached triple digits in WCC wins. Fitzgerald calls Pepperdine “a very dangerous team” in that the Waves are very athletic, although thin on personnel. “We were down by 10 with 15 minutes to go down there,” Fitzgerald said. Pep’s Gerald Brown leads the conference in scoring at 18.7 a game. In WCC games only, Brown (21.0) and GU’s Paul Rogers (19.1) are 1-2 in scoring.
Gonzaga: Paul Rogers, 16.2 ppg; Rogers, 7.9 rpg; Kyle Dixon, 5.5 apg. Pepperdine: Gerald Brown, 18.7 ppg; Bryan Hill, 7.5 rpg; Khary Hervey, 4.4 apg.
Radio: KJRB (790 AM) with Dick Wright 15 minutes before tip-off.
, DataTimes