COUGARS

So much for being Syracuse West. Washington State opened in its 2-3 zone and in the first 5 minutes Oregon hit the offensive glass and, when it missed, grabbed the offensive rebound. Before you knew it, the Ducks had built a 17-8 lead. But WSU battled back and cut it to 17-12 when Klay Thompson stole a pass aimed at Garrett Sim and went coast-to-coast for a two-hand slam. About 12 minutes were left until half and WSU was 5 of 14 from the field. Not great but not terrible. Terrible is 6 of 28 (21.4 percent). That's what WSU was at the half, its worst half of the season. Though the Cougars tightened up the defense and the boards – Oregon had one offensive rebound in the final 8 minutes – but the 10:26 stretch without a field goal (from Thompson's dunk to a Faisal Aden 3-pointer broken up by just seven free throws) just killed them. Oregon built a 27-12 lead and never allowed the Cougars closer than nine before half. Thompson and Aden are each 2 of 8 from the floor, with Aden 2 of 6 from 3 and Thompson 1-4. But they had help. DeAngelo Casto is 0 for 4, Patrick Simon 0 for 2 and Reggie Moore and Brock Motum both 1 of 3. For Oregon, Cougar-killer A.J. Singler is 3 of 3 for six points while J.R. Strowbridge has eight. We’ll be back a couple hours after the game is over.

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