Cougs’ Loss Spells Nit, Not Ncaa Washington State Drops Critical Game To Stanford

“NIT! NIT! NIT!”

The chant started early Thursday night and was aimed directly at Washington State’s bench.

It was obvious that Stanford’s fans didn’t think WSU belonged in the real postseason tournament - the NCAA. And the Cougars certainly did nothing to alter their thinking in dropping a pivotal 79-72 Pacific-10 Conference basketball decision to the Cardinal in front of a small, but noisy, Maples Pavilion crowd of 6,309.

The Cougars, who came in thinking a win might put them in the NCAA, might now need a victory at California Saturday afternoon just to make the National Invitation Tournament, which is where the not-quite- good-enough go to close their seasons.

The loss dropped WSU to 9-8 in the Pac-10 and 15-11 overall. Stanford, which had lost five of its last seven games, climbed into a fifth-place tie with the Cougars in the Pac-10 standings and raised its overall record to 18-8.

And WSU coach Kevin Eastman seemed certain the Cardinal played their way into the Big Dance.

“The better team,” Eastman said, “won the game, deserved to win the game and deserves to go the NCAA Tournament.”

Sophomore point guard Brevin Knight led Stanford with 17 points and six assists, but it was the Cardinal’s 7-foot-1 freshman center Tim Young who seemed to hurt the Cougars most.

He finished with 15 points and 11 rebounds in only 24 minutes and generally had his way with WSU’s front-line players.

“Tonight, in may mind, it was all about Tim Young,” Eastman said, after watching his young club lose on the road for the seventh time in 10 games. “Tim Young established an inside presence that really hurt our team.

“We got come easy baskets, I thought, when he was out. And if you charted the game, I’d venture to say the majority of our points come when he wasn’t in the game.”

Stanford also got a big lift from going to the foul line 43 times and making 30 free throws to WSU’s 14. The Cougars actually made three more field goals than Stanford, despite shooting a season-low 38 percent, but couldn’t keep up at the foul line.

It would be easy to say WSU’s ice-cold shooting cost them the game, but the Cougars Mark Hendrickson, who scored 18 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, wasn’t about to make it that simple.

“I think it was a little more than that,” he said. “A great team will go out and find a way to win a game like this whether things are going well or not. We showed out inexperience, especially on the road, by not being able to make plays when we had to.

“Maybe we’re just proving the critics right. I don’t know if we deserve to be in the NCAA Tournament. Teams that make the tournament find a way to win on the road and this team hasn’t - except for a little spurt in Oregon. But we haven’t done it since.”

The Cougars, who got 21 points from Fontaine and 16 from Shamon Antrum, started out like they might be ready to take that next step and built a small lead midway through the first half.

But after Tavares Mack’s tip-in made it 19-13, WSU went over 9 minutes without a field goal. The Cougars missed all nine field goals they tried during that stretch and were down 30-24 before Hendrickson broke the dry spell from the field with a 3-pointer from the corner with 32 seconds left in the half.

Stanford was up 32-27 at intermission and never let WSU back in the lead.

The Cardinal used an 8-point run with just over 5 minutes left to boost its advantage to 70-58 and then made just enough free throws down the stretch to douse any Cougar comeback ambitions.

“That’s more typical of the kind of effort we expect and had earlier this year from our basketball team,” Stanford coach Mike Montgomery said. “This was a big win for us.

“It was a tremendously hardfought game with both clubs really working hard and making plays. But any time we got in trouble, we didn’t let them have a run or a stretch where they made three for four shots in a row.”

The Cardinal got 15 points, including 14 in the second half, from reserve forward David Harbour and 14 from Andy Poppink.

Stanford 79, WSU 72 WASHINGTON ST. (15-11)

Fontaine 8-21 4-7 21, Hendrickson 7-16 3-3 18, Mack 3-8 1-2 7, Ellison 1-4 0-0 3, Antrum 6-11 3-5 16, Corkrum 1-4 0-0 2, Griffin 0-3 3-4 3, Vic 1-3 0-0 2, Warmenhoven 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 27-70 14-21 72.

STANFORD (18-8)

Allaway 2-5 4-6 8, Poppink 5-10 4-6 14, Young 4-9 7-7 15, Cross 3-8 3-4 9, Knight 5-13 7-11 17, Harbour 5-8 4-7 15, Lammersen 0-3 1-2 1, Jackson 0-1 0-0 0, Gravely 0-0 0-0 . Totals 24-57 30-43 79.

Halftime-Stanford 32, Washington St. 27. 3-Point goals- Washington St. 4-10 (Fontaine 1-4, Hendrickson 1-1, Ellison 1-3, Antrum 1-2), Stanford 1-8 (Cross 0-4, Knight 0-1, Harbour 1-3). Fouled out-Hendrickson, Ellison, Griffin. Rebounds- Washington St. 45 (Hendrickson 13), Stanford 39 (Young 11). Assists-Washington St. 11 (Ellison 4), Stanford 8 (Knight 6). Total fouls-Washington St. 29, Stanford 19. A-6,309.