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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Cougs top Beavers

WSU fends off OSU despite off night from Thompson

PULLMAN – The score was reminiscent of a bygone era of Washington State University basketball.

You know, oh so long ago when the Bennetts, Dick and Tony, were the coaches.

But the factors leading to WSU’s 65-60 Pacific-10 Conference victory – Ken Bone’s first in Pullman – over Oregon State on Saturday were oh so different.

The Cougars surprised the 5,967 at Friel Court – including OSU’s coach – by playing some 30 minutes of zone defense, eschewing their pack man-to-man to pack it in and force the Beavers to beat them from the outside.

They couldn’t.

“We shot too many 3s,” said Oregon State coach Craig Robinson of his team’s 7-of-24 performance. “We’re not that good of a 3-point shooting team.”

“Coach said coming in they only had one shooter, and that was Haynes,” said WSU wing Marcus Capers, who set a career high with 10 rebounds while scoring the same number of points. “When you only have one shooter, that makes it easier to play a zone.

“Coach said, ‘Let’s give it a look,’ and it worked out for us.”

The shooter Capers was talking about, guard Calvin Haynes, helped OSU rally from a 10-point early second-half deficit, scoring 17 points – 12 after halftime – including 3 of 7 on 3-pointers.

Haynes also played a part in a defensive effort focused on stopping WSU’s Klay Thompson, averaging 25.6 points a game. That effort, along with foul trouble, limited the nation’s second-leading scorer to a season-low seven points before he fouled out with 4:49 left.

Haynes played a key role in the game’s key play.

The Beavers, who shot 25.9 percent in the first half – including 22.7 (5 of 22) with WSU in its 2-3 zone the last 15 minutes, 34 seconds of the period – rallied to tie the game at 58 on two Roeland Schaftenaar free throws with 3:30 left.

After DeAngelo Casto and Xavier Thames, playing for Thompson, sandwiched baskets around a Schaftenaar turnover, Haynes scored on floater in the key to cut the lead to 62-60.

And when Nik Koprivica succumbed to OSU’s pressure and turned the ball over with 43 seconds left, the Beavers (6-7, 0-2 Pac-10) turned to Haynes again.

The junior came off a Schaftenaar screen, turned the corner on Casto and went to the hole. But Reggie Moore, WSU’s freshman point guard, slid over and got in Haynes’ way.

A whistle. A charge. The Cougars (11-3, 1-1) had the ball back with 17 seconds left. They hit 3 of 4 free throws in that span, Haynes missed a contested 3-pointer in between, and WSU had a split of the opening conference weekend.

“The ref said I got there, so I got there,” Moore said of the key defensive play.

“I thought it was a bad call,” Haynes said. “I didn’t think he was set, I thought he was sliding over. I thought for sure I was going to the free-throw line for that one.”

Asked about the call, Robinson chose his words carefully.

“I continually try to keep a very positive attitude about the officiating in this league, so I’m going to do that – and then I’ll just say, ‘Except for today’ and that’s all I’ll say,” Robinson said.

Robinson expressed admiration for OSU’s play, pointing out a glaring free-throw discrepancy.

“For them to make 15 of 15 foul shots, that’s great, especially when they’re down 14 foul shots, and both teams are playing a zone,” Robinson said.

WSU’s 29 free throws didn’t help as much as they should have. Consider WSU made just 16, including 2 of 7 by Moore, who came in shooting 83.8 percent from the line.

Despite that, Moore finished with a game-high 19 points, teaming with players like Thames (eight points) and James Watson (seven) to take up some of the slack from Thompson playing just 29 minutes and hitting only 2 of 6 shots.

“Usually I make my free throws in practice and games,” Moore said. “I don’t know, I was shooting like Shaq today.”

Bone thought some of the Cougars’ shooting like Shaquille O’Neal came from tired legs stemming from Thursday’s double-overtime defeat.

“Our legs, we just didn’t look very fresh,” he said.

Those legs were also part of the reasoning behind the Cougars’ zone.

“We really wanted to continue to keep our best players on the floor,” Bone said. “A little slower pace allowed us to do that.”

“Oh yeah, absolutely (a shock),” Robinson said of WSU imitating his team and playing zone until switching back to man-to-man with 5:38 left in the game. “You’ve got a guy who’s saying he wants to keep the games in the 80s and this was barely in the 60s.

“But there are no moral victories, you can’t just say because they played zone all game that’s better, because we didn’t win. So what you have to look at, he executed some different game plan better than we did.”