Tale of the tape: WSU 59, Fresno State 50
COUGARS
FROM PULLMAN -- Well, that wasn't a whole lot of fun to watch. But Washington State didn't have to learn its lesson the hard way on Sunday, as it pulled out an ugly 59-50 win over visiting Fresno State at Beasley Coliseum. We have our capsulated review of the game after the jump, so read on.
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PLAYER OF THE GAME -- Royce Woolridge made a layup with 14:10 left in the first half to give WSU an 11-6 lead. And for the rest of the first half, Brock Motum was the only WSU player who scored. Yes, Motum scored WSU's final 13 points of the half, and finished with a game-high 23 for his fourth consecutive game of 20 points or more. Mike Ladd had a strong outing, too, scoring a WSU career-high 19 points against his former team (he once scored 22 in a game for Fresno State). In fact, Motum and Ladd combined to shoot 14 of 25 from the field. The rest of the team made just five of 22 field-goal attempts. Motum played 37 minutes, and Ladd played 33.
PLAY OF THE GAME -- With WSU leading 50-48 and just under three minutes remaining, Ladd drove to the basket, drew a foul and flipped a circus shot through the hoop as he stumbled. He missed the free throw, but the basket gave WSU a 4-point lead and it didn't lead by fewer than six points the rest of the game.
STAT OF THE GAME -- Already mentioned a few big ones above, but it should also be noted that Fresno State made just two of its 20 attempts from 3-point range. That isn't very good. Also, Junior Longrus played a career-high 21 minutes with D.J. Shelton in a bit of foul trouble.
QUOTABLE -- "Ultimately, I’d love to see 10 guys each score eight points. That makes us harder to guard and less predictable. But it’s not an equal opportunity thing. So we go to our best players, maybe to a fault." -- WSU coach Ken Bone on the team's unbalanced scoring totals
UP NEXT -- WSU has three days off before a 7 p.m. game Thursday against Jackson State, which holds an 0-5 record and will play four games in seven days during a west coast road trip.
Christian Caple can be reached at christianc@spokesman.com. Twitter: @ChristianCaple