Washington State allows Bears to claw back in another OT loss

BERKELEY, Calif. – Just when things seem to be going best for this year’s Washington State University men’s basketball team, expect the worst.

The latest confirmation of this season-long trend came Saturday, when the Cougars offense went into shutdown mode down the stretch – again – and not even Thomas Kelati’s heroics at the end of regulation could save WSU from another baffling loss.

The 63-57 setback to California (13-15, 6-12) was the team’s fourth defeat in overtime during the Pacific-10 Conference season, this one before 8,972 Haas Pavilion fans.

The Cougars (12-15, 7-11) came in knowing they were in the conference tournament courtesy of an upset win over Stanford two days earlier, but they played for much of the game as if they wanted more, dominating Cal on the defensive end to offset struggles on the offensive side of the floor. But in the end, as has been its style, WSU did just enough to fumble away an opportunity to climb the conference standings while preparing to play in Los Angeles next week.

“We don’t follow up a successful game with another one,” said Kelati, who scored a career-high 29 points. “We had a lead, and then in the last five minutes gave them some momentum and it carried out the entire game. I don’t know what that is. I don’t know what’s wrong with us, why we can’t string a couple games in a row.”

WSU won’t have long to figure out how to do so. The conference tournament begins on Thursday, and with the loss the Cougars end up with the No. 6 seed, setting up a quick rematch with Stanford. Despite the loss, this could be the best possible break for WSU, since it defeated Stanford by nine on New Year’s Eve in Spokane and by 11 last Thursday at Maples Pavilion.

WSU landed the sixth seed only because Arizona State and Oregon both lost after the Cougars had fumbled away their game against Cal. Oregon’s loss also allowed the Golden Bears to slide into the tournament as the last seed.

Stanford shocked Washington on Saturday to lock up the third seed and, as it turned out, provide a third chance to beat WSU.

But even before learning their conference tournament fate, WSU knew it had bigger problems to solve within its locker room.

“That’s at least the sixth or seventh time this year we got really timid,” head coach Dick Bennett said. “We made some very substantial mistakes down the stretch, like failing to block out or fouling a guy on a 3-point shot. Little things like that that have kept us from winning all year. It’s been very frustrating.”

There wouldn’t have been an overtime had it not been for one outstanding play at the end of regulation. Having already given away their lead – as large as 10 in the first half – the Cougars trailed by three in the final seconds. With no points on the board since the 3:36 mark, WSU put the ball in Kelati’s hands and he drilled a 3-pointer with 7 seconds left to tie the game and send it to the extra period.

Kelati had 15 of the team’s 23 first-half points and was the team’s lone offensive threat for nearly the entire game. Chris Schlatter had 12 points for WSU, but the Cal bench outscored WSU’s 27-4. As a team, the Cougars shot 32.2 percent from the floor.

“Thomas appeared to be our only player out there today,” Bennett said. “He’s had to carry so much of the load.”

Even still, the Cougars appeared to have control of the game much of the way. Even in overtime, the Cougars held a four-point lead but then were outscored 13-3.

Cal’s Marquise Kately had a team-high 17 points and Rod Benson had 15.