The game that was: Washington 75, WSU 65
COUGARS
FROM SEATTLE -- Just filed our game story, and we'll link that when it's up. But for now, here's our capsulated look at tonight's game, a 75-65 win for Washington over Washington State.
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PLAYER OF THE GAME -- Not much doubt about this one. Terrence Ross made just one of his nine field goal attempts in the first half, but scored 26 of his career-high 30 points after halftime and torched the Cougars from 3-point range. He made 6-12 shots from long range, including 5-7 in the second half. In short, he took over, part of the reason why UW outscored WSU 23-4 in a crucial stretch that began midway through the second half with WSU leading by 10 points.
PLAY OF THE GAME -- I always hate to overstate the power a technical foul can have on a team's psyche -- I think it's typically just a convenient device to point to when a team plays well following an emotional moment -- but there's no arguing that the game changed after Lorenzo Romar's technical foul with 12:10 left to play. Faisal Aden's two free throws gave WSU a 47-37 lead, but the energy of the building changed, thanks to a couple quick stops and the Huskies' shots finally starting to fall. WSU never responded, and the momentum swing got the Huskies through the rest of the game. Still, you can't put it all on the T -- Washington was the more aggressive team on the boards from the get-go, and that never changed.
KEY STAT -- Another no-brainer: Washington worked WSU over on the glass, claiming 46 boards to WSU's 24 (and 24-8 in the second half). The real eye-popping part of that is the offensive rebounding totals -- the Huskies had the edge 22-4. They had more offensive boards than WSU had defensive boards. You just can't win games that way.
QUOTABLE -- "I was looking to see if guys were leaking out, and I didn’t see that. I’ll study the video on the way back tonight to Pullman, but I thought our guys were in there. I felt like Washington was more aggressive and probably a little bigger and stronger in the paint. They just crushed us on the offensive glass." -- coach Ken Bone, asked about the rebounding margin
NEXT UP -- A home game, finally, Thursday against Stanford at 7:05 p.m. The Cardinal (15-3, 5-1 Pac-12) swept Utah and Colorado this weekend to remain tied atop the Pac-12 standings.
Christian Caple can be reached at christianc@spokesman.com. Twitter: @ChristianCaple