Cougars Just Can’t Keep Up Enthusiasm There, But WSU Falls Short Against Stanford

There were stretches Thursday night when Washington State played with renewed enthusiasm, scarcely resembling the team that had lost eight of nine basketball games coming in.

The problem, at least from the Cougars’ perspective, was that Stanford’s efficiency was distributed far more evenly.

The result, a 76-63 Stanford victory before 5,294 at Friel Court, padded the 20th-ranked Cardinal’s NCAA Tournament resume while leaving WSU searching for answers once again.

Not even the irrepressible Isaac Fontaine, who scored 26 points and now needs just nine to break the WSU career scoring record, could prevent what seemed like the inevitable.

“I think we gotta win,” Cougars coach Kevin Eastman said, downplaying an effort that might once have been interpreted as progress, “because that’s what the players want.

“As a coach, you want to see advances, but as I told them in the locker room, you probably don’t want to hear this, but (after) a few games I had to sort of fake it to get the enthusiasm up - say that we played better when in fact we didn’t. And this game we truly did (play better).”

Improvement or not, the Cougars (11-14) have lost five straight and are just 3-10 in the Pacific-10 Conference, barely ahead of Oregon State (3-11) and Arizona State (2-11).

Stanford, meanwhile, averted what could have been a disastrous defeat.

“This game was critical,” said coach Mike Montgomery. “We did what we needed to do - it wasn’t always pretty, but we tried to talk all week that it didn’t make any difference.

“We had to win. Everything else was secondary.”

As a bonus, Oregon surprised 12th-ranked Arizona, allowing Stanford (16-6, 9-5) to slip past the Wildcats (8-5) and into a third-place tie with USC.

Stanford senior point guard Brevin Knight stepped up offensively against WSU, scoring 23 points to help compensate for the diminished capabilities of ailing center Tim Young (sore back).

Even with the 7-foot-1 Young limited - the sophomore had just 10 points and four rebounds in 27 minutes - Stanford won most of the battles inside.

Forwards Mark Madsen and Pete Sauer each grabbed eight rebounds. Even Knight slipped through for five boards, outrebounding every Cougar but Carlos Daniel.

But the Cougars still had chances. Fontaine saw to that.

WSU trailed 51-38 with 11 minutes left when Fontaine took over, scoring 13 points during an 8-minute stretch that saw the Cougars get within 64-61.

Madsen got free for a dunk that made it 66-61, and Stanford scored again after Sauer stripped the ball from Daniel with 2:32 left. Knight followed with two free throws, and Stanford held on by making 8 of 8 from the line in the final 1:16.

Daniel appeared to be fouled by Sauer as he elevated for a dunk on the critical play, but didn’t get the call. The no-call prompted a sideline outburst from Eastman, who had already been simmering after consecutive traveling calls against Steve Slotemaker and Fontaine.

The game started much like last month’s WSU loss in Palo Alto, when the Cougars fell behind 12-0. Stanford scored the first nine points this time, and led 18-7 before the Cougars registered so much as a pulse.

Beau Archibald, sidelined by illness and ineffective play in recent games, became a catalyst once again. The 6-6 freshman wing hit a pair of 3-pointers that helped WSU cut the deficit to 21-15 with 10 minutes left in the half.

Later, his acrobatic follow-dunk would get the Cougars within 68-63 with 1:50 left. Archibald was feeling so good, in fact, that he even briefly went after Young - temporarily forgetting about a 60-pound disadvantage.

“I don’t even know what I was thinking,” said Archibald, who hit two 3-pointers and finished with 10 points. “The ref came up to me and was like, ‘What were you thinking?’

“They’ve got some big guys. They just kept bringing them off the bench.”

Next for the Cougars will be red-hot and 25th-ranked California, which visits Friel Court for a 3 p.m. tipoff Saturday.

Stanford 76, Washington St. 63

STANFORD (16-6) - Sauer 4-6 1-2 11, Weems 2-10 2-2 6, Young 3-8 4-4 10, Lee 4-6 4-5 13, Knight 7-12 7-10 23, Moseley 0-2 0-1 0, Jackson 0-1 0-0 0, Mendez 0-0 0-0 0, Van Elswyk 0-0 0-0 0, Seaton 0-0 0-0 0, Madsen 4-6 5-5 13. Totals 24-51 23-29 76.

WASHINGTON ST. (11-14) - Daniel 4-14 2-2 10, Fontaine 9-16 7-8 26, Johnson 1-3 0-0 2, De la Fuente 0-2 0-0 0, Jackson 0-0 2-4 2, Pengelly 2-5 0-0 6, Archibald 3-4 0-0 8, Crosby 0-2 4-4 4, Slotemaker 0-2 5-6 5. Totals 19-48 20-24 63.

Halftime-Stanford 35, Washington St. 28. 3-Point goals-Stanford 5-17 (Sauer 2-3, Knight 2-5, Lee 1-1, Jackson 0-1, Moseley 0-2, Weems 0-5), Washington St. 5-12 (Pengelly 2-3, Archibald 2-3, Fontaine 1-5, Crosby 0-1). Fouled out-None. Rebounds-Stanford 36 (Sauer, Madsen 8), Washington St. 25 (Daniel 8). Assists- Stanford 15 (Knight 6), Washington St. 11 (Fontaine, Pengelly, Archibald, Crosby 2). Total fouls-Stanford 21, Washington St. 22. A- 5,294.

, DataTimes