WSU triumphs with bedeviling defense
PULLMAN – So now we know. Tony Bennett is prescient.
At least Washington State’s basketball coach was Thursday night.
“I told them before the game you will win this game, without a doubt, with your defense,” Bennett said after the Cougars had, well, defeated Arizona State 59-47 with their defense. “You are going to have to get stops and make them shoot a low percentage.”
WSU did both, especially in the second half.
“I thought we were a little shaky early, defensively, they got some transition buckets, some second-chance points,” Bennett said. “As the game wore on, we tightened up and got back and made them play in front of us, and really fought. That’s our ticket.”
It’s been their ticket to a 21-5 overall record, 9-5 in the Pac-10, and will probably be their ticket to a second consecutive NCAA tournament berth.
The 9,212 at Beasley Coliseum not only got to see the 17th-ranked Cougars hold Arizona State to 22.7 percent shooting after halftime, they also witnessed:
“Kyle Weaver and the Cougars hold super freshman James Harden to 3-of-11 shooting, 1 of 7 from beyond the arc;
“A crowd-pleasing Aron Baynes steal and breakaway dunk;
“Daven Harmeling coming off the bench late to hit a 21-foot jumper that killed ASU’s upset hopes;
“And, as the clincher, WSU converting 9 of 12 free throws in the final 1:40 to cement its fourth consecutive win.
In the Cougars’ 56-55 win in Tempe nearly a month ago, the Sun Devils (16-9, 6-7) had, according to Bennett, 18 baskets around the rim. A big part of that came on penetration by Harden, who slashed his way to 25 points.
“He’s strong and when you have a player like that … I want to beat him to the spot on the drive,” said Weaver, who had the responsibility of trying to corral the freshman that came in averaging 18 points a game. “He got basically everything at the basket down there in Arizona. I made him shoot a couple jumpers (tonight) and I was lucky they weren’t falling.”
“I have to give credit to Kyle for keeping Harden in front of him,” said Taylor Rochestie, who suffered through a poor shooting night (1 of 10) but hit 8 of 10 from the line, finished with 10 points and held the Sun Devils’ other heralded freshman, Ty Abbott, to four shots and seven points. “A lot of what Abbott gets is off Harden’s penetration and dishing.”
But Weaver also admitted he got lucky – especially at the end.
The Devils, trailing by as many as nine early in the second half, had finally clawed to within 45-43 with 5:31 left after Harden converted three free throws – Weaver had leveled him on a 3-point attempt – on his only trip to the line.
But ASU went the next 4 minutes without scoring, and it wasn’t all WSU’s defense. Harden had back-to-back open looks at 3-pointers to start the stretch and missed both.
“They were great looks,” Weaver said. “I got lucky, but at the same time I kind of encouraged it, I wanted him to shoot a couple jumpers.”
When Arizona State’s drought ended, WSU led by nine and it was all over but the free throws.
It was still in doubt, however, with the Cougs up 43-40 with 6 minutes left, when Baynes poked Harden’s pass away from Jeff Pendergraph, gathered up the loose ball in front of the pack and went the distance for a one-footed dunk.
“I was in the right place at the right time,” said Baynes, who finished with 10 points and six rebounds. “I got lucky.”
The crowd went nuts, forcing ASU coach Herb Sendek to call a timeout. He didn’t after the next crowd-pleasing moment, Harmeling’s 3-pointer from the left corner with 2:23 left, which gave the Cougars a 50-43 margin.
Maybe he should have because the Sun Devils’ Derek Glasser missed a jumper, WSU rebounded (the Cougars had a 31-27 edge) and Derrick Low started the free-throw parade. WSU was 17 of 24 while ASU was perfect on 11 attempts.
“Washington State played outstanding defense, very physical,” Sendek said. “We weren’t able to get to the free-throw line tonight and baskets were difficult to come by. On the other side of the same coin, we missed some shots (that) to win a game like tonight you have to make.”
WSU made just enough (shooting 43 percent) with Low leading the way with 15 points, including two early long-range 3-pointers. But WSU hit just 4 of 13 from beyond the arc, its worst showing since the Stanford loss.
“We attacked their zone better than the last couple times we’ve played them without shooting the ball particularly well from the 3-point line,” Bennett said, before looking back a couple weeks. “We were always so close, even when we lost those three games. It was just a couple little things down the stretch that hurt us.
“It does come down to executing and trying to make some plays the last 5, 4 minutes of the game.”
See, prescient.