Jacob Thorpe

Their last one was not discernibly different from the majority of the Washington State women’s basketball team’s defining losses this season, it’s just the one that will linger longest.

The Cougars were run out of Hec Edmundson Pavilion in the 97-91 loss on Wednesday, reduced to sacrificial victims to the arena nearly full of fans who came to worship at the alter of Andrew Andrews.

The Washington State men’s basketball team has played at many speeds this season, but on Wednesday they’re going to play at Ernie Kent’s favorite tempo.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Gary Payton II honored his dad, the former Seattle SuperSonics star, by eschewing the No. 1 jersey he typically wears and instead rocked his old man’s No. 20 during Oregon State’s last home game. He continued the homage by scoring, doling out assists, and pilfering the basketball from Washington State’s players just like “The Glove” used to.

EUGENE – Considering how predetermined the outcome between first-place Oregon and last-place Washington State might have seemed, and the final margin of the Ducks’ eventual 76-62 victory, one might easily overlook just how much was actually accomplished in Wednesday night’s blowout. The Ducks won their 24th consecutive home game, breaking a record set in 2003 by a team coached by Ernie Kent, who was of course leading the visitors on Wednesday.

Marshawn Lynch’s 2010 NFC Wild Card stiff-arm of Tracy Porter shook Seattle’s tectonic foundations and symbolically initiated a new era of professional football in the state of Washington.

Ernie Kent was on the sidelines in Eugene in 2002 when Oregon won its school-record 23rd consecutive home game.

PULLMAN – The latest best chance at a win squandered by the Washington State basketball team followed an unfamiliar outline. Although, really, is there anything we have not seen during this losing streak?