Wed., March 6, 2013
Tale of the tape: WSU 73, UCLA 61
COUGARS
FROM PULLMAN -- The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant! OK, not quite. But the Cougars did end their 19-game home losing streak against UCLA with a resounding 73-61 win over the Bruins at Beasley Coliseum tonight, and we have our usual recap for you after the jump. Read on.
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PLAYER OF THE GAME -- Brock Motum led all scorers with 20 points, and grabbed 11 rebounds -- six offensive -- to boot. Royce Woolridge chipped in 19 points and did a nice job of creating shot opportunities for himself. And Dexter Kernich-Drew had perhaps the best game of his career, registerting his first double-double by scoring 11 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. We'll give the nod to Kernich-Drew, because his contributions were above and beyond his typical output. And they were especially important with DaVonte Lacy and Mike Ladd on the sidelines.
PLAY OF THE GAME -- Motum's long pass to Will DiIorio and DiIorio's ensuing dunk felt like the death knell for UCLA, which more or less folded after that. But WSU making nine of its final 10 free-throw attempts was critical, too, especially as the Bruins cranked up their defensive pressure and forced a couple of turnovers down the stretch.
STAT OF THE GAME -- It has to be the rebounds. WSU manhandled UCLA on the glass, doubling the Bruins rebounding total, 46-23. More astounding is that 21 of the Cougars' rebounds came on the offensive end. And they missed 29 shots. That's an incredible percentage. We also would be remiss if we didn't mention this number: 1993. That, of course, was the last year in which WSU won a home game against UCLA. Before tonight, anyway.
QUOTABLE -- "We’ve been scrutinized quite a bit -- how bad we are, we’ve lost this game and that game and how we lose the games and everything else. It’s nice to go out and beat a quality team and play good basketball." -- coach Ken Bone
UP NEXT -- Saturday against USC, a 3:30 p.m. game on the Pac-12 Networks. It will be the final home game for Brock Motum (and for Mike Ladd, though he isn't likely to play). The Trojans currently lead Washington 41-39 midway through the second half.
Christian Caple can be reached at christianc@spokesman.com. Twitter: @ChristianCaple