Cougars picks up crucial Pac-10 win over USC

PULLMAN – Given what was at stake Thursday night in Beasley Coliseum, it was surprising that one team came out flat and uninspired, their coach bemoaning the lack of effort.

Yes, even to coach Kevin O’Neill, the USC Trojans didn’t look ready to play.

And Washington State made them pay, building a 17-point first-half lead and surviving a barrage of second-half 3-pointers by executing down the stretch for a crucial 85-77 Pac-10 Conference victory.

The list of WSU contributors was long – the Cougars played 11 – but the three stars were obvious to the 7,126 at Friel Court.

DeAngelo Casto banged around with Nikola Vucevic and Alex Stepheson for 32 minutes and finished with 24 points (on 10-of-11 shooting) and 10 rebounds, his sixth double-double this season and 13th of his career.

Klay Thompson did even more than usual, helping with the ball-handling duties when point guard Reggie Moore went down with a sprained ankle less than 9 minutes in, by surviving the physical punishment of Marcus Simmons’ defense for 22 points, five rebounds, three assists and one turnover in 39 minutes.

And Faisal Aden, who played 35 minutes, contributed 20 points, five rebounds and two assists – and one big strip of Vucevic for a late layup when USC could have pulled within three.

“I liked the energy they came out with early in the game and I thought, for most of the 40 minutes, we played really hard,” WSU coach Ken Bone said.

And for most of them, they played without Moore.

The sophomore, who played one of his better games of the year in last Sunday’s win over Washington, came down awkwardly after a jumper, fell to the floor, grabbed his right ankle and hopped to the bench.

“It’s in a boot and I don’t like to see that,” Bone said of Moore, who watched the second half from the bench in the boot. “Other than that, I know nothing.”

WSU led at that point 14-7 en route to leads of 18-7, 32-19 and 41-24.

“We didn’t play with very good energy,” an obviously frustrated O’Neill said.

Frustrated because his team had won four consecutive conference games to pull into fourth and put itself in the NCAA bubble talk, albeit on the fringes. Frustrated because a win would have ensured USC would not have to play Wednesday in the first-round of the Pac-10 tournament at Los Angeles’ Staples Center.

But thanks to Oregon’s 73-53 loss at Arizona State and WSU’s win, it is the Cougars (19-10, 9-8 Pac-10) who earned the rest. The Oregon loss handed USC (17-13, 9-8) its day off, though seeding will be decided by Saturday’s games.

“Everybody would like to avoid that game,” Bone said. “Everybody goes into the conference tournament hoping to win it. And it’s easier to win three games than four.”

WSU has won two crucial games in a row, but this one looked a bit questionable in the second half, despite the big early lead.

At one point the Trojans hit four consecutive long-range shots, the last, by Maurice Jones, pulling them within 63-62 for the second – and final – time. But Casto answered with a three-point play and followed that with a dunk to push the lead to 68-62 with 5:50 left.

WSU 85, Southern Cal 77