Arizona Roughs Up Cougars Davis Overwhelms WSU Inside, Sparks Wildcats To 96-78 Rout

From all indications, 6-foot-10 senior center Joseph Blair has played his last game for Arizona - a classroom casualty of mammoth proportions.

The loss has robbed UA of leadership, 265 pounds of brute strength and one of the most physical frontline forces in the country.

But before rushing to the post office to fire off a sympathy card to Wildcats coach Lute Olson, one might consider this: Ben Davis, who has been known to put a pretty mean body of his own on opposing players, is still eligible.

And the 6-9, 240-pound senior forward put more hurt on visiting Washington State in Saturday’s 96-78 Arizona win than Blair did in any of his previous six games against WSU.

Davis, who finished with a game-high 14 rebounds, treated a McKale Center crowd of 14,390 to a 20-point performance on one end of the court and defensive masterpiece on the other as the Wildcats (16-4 overall, 6-3 Pacific-10 Conference) beat up on WSU for the 21st time in a row.

The Cougars, who came in on a false high following Thursday night’s 72-58 win at Arizona State, had no answer for Davis - or the depth of UA’s bench and fell to 9-8, 2-7.

Afterward, WSU coach Kevin Eastman pointed to several reasons for his team’s second-half collapse. Among them were:

Arizona’s barrage of five spirit-breaking 3-pointers, including two by Reggie Geary and Joe McLean shortly after intermission that ignited a 16-4 run that included 11 unanswered points and lifted UA from a 40-39 halftime deficit into a 56-44 lead.

Arizona’s attack mentality against WSU’s gambling, full-court defensive pressure - a mindset that resulted in easy transition baskets on seemingly every possession.

His own team’s shaky confidence and inability to make shots.

Eastman could have also mentioned the contributions of Arizona’s reserves, who outscored WSU’s bench 34-19.

After all, reserve guard Michael Dickerson made 4 of 5 from 3-point range and finished with 17 points, freshman center A.J. Bramlett added 10 points in just 13 minutes and freshman point guard Jason Terry - in spot relief of senior Reggie Geary - dished out seven assists.

But in the end, the difference was Davis, who made 10 of 15 from the field while holding Mark Hendrickson to nine points.

“I don’t know if you can play better than what he played on both ends of the court,” Arizona coach Lute Olson said. “He did a tremendous job defensively on Hendrickson - which isn’t easy to do, he gave us big-time rebounding and he converted his opportunities very well.”

Eastman wasn’t as gushing with his praise, admitting only that Davis’ play was “real physical.”

And the brevity of his comments spoke volumes, considering the outcome might have been determined in the opening minutes when it became apparent that the officials were going to let the jostling inside test all physical limits. From the start, Hendrickson and Davis engaged in a violent struggle for position that, at times, resembled a World Wrestling Federation match turned legit.

The decision, if not the pin, went to Davis, who at one point locked arms with Hendrickson and threw him to the floor - producing no whistle.

With Hendrickson removed from its half-court offense, WSU was forced to turn to its shaky perimeter game. Junior guard Isaac Fontaine scored a game-high 21 points that included five 3-pointers. But 11 came after UA completed its early second-half charge. Point guard Donminic Ellison had nine assists, but he and shooting guard Shamon Antrum were a combined 6 of 33 from the field and 2 of 11 on 3-pointers.

“They just kept on attacking … especially in the second half,” Antrum said. Arizona outscored WSU 57-38 after intermission and shot 63.2 percent (24 for 38) from the floor.

Eastman blamed much of WSU’s second-half woes on lack of confidence, pointing out a missed layup and wide-open jumper on its first two possessions of the half.

“Our guys are still in the mode of, ‘Oh no, here it goes again,”’ he said. “We tried to press them, but we could never get to the point where we had more confidence in our press than they had in their press offense.”

To turn things around, WSU will have to do it at home, where it is 0-4 against Pac-10 foes this season. Oregon State visits Friel Court Thursday night, with Oregon due in Saturday.

Arizona 96, WSU 78

Washington St. (9-8) - Daniel 4-6 0-0 8, Fontaine 8-15 0-0 21, Hendrickson 4-6 1-2 9, Ellison 4-12 0-0 10, Antrum 2-11 7-9 11, Jackson 0-1 0-0 0, Scott 2-4 0-0 5, Johnson 2-4 1-2 5, Slotemaker 0-0 0-0 0, Coby 1-1 1-2 3, Mack 2-4 2-2 6. Totals 29-64 12-17 78.

Arizona (16-4) - McLean 3-6 0-1 7, Williams 8-15 1-1 17, Davis 10-15 0-1 20, Simon 3-11 1-2 8, Geary 4-7 0-0 10, Dickerson 6-12 1-2 17, Eafon 0-1 1-2 1, Harris 2-3 0-0 4, Terry 1-2 0-0 2, Bramlett 3-4 4-5 10. Totals 40-76 8-14 96.

Halftime-Washington St. 40, Arizona 39. 3-Point goals- Washington St. 8-21 (Fontaine 5-7, Ellison 2-6, Scott 1-1, Hendrickson 0-2, Antrum 0-5). Arizona 8-21 (Dickerson 4-5, Geary 2-4, McLean 1-3, Simon 1-5, Eafon 0-1, Williams 0-3). Fouled out-None. Rebounds-Washington St. 30 (Daniel, Hendrickson, Scott 5), Arizona 47 (Davis 14). Assists-Washington St. 24 (Ellison 9), Arizona 23 (Terry 7). Total fouls-Washington St. 14, Arizona 14. A-14,390.

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