Cougars End Road Woes WSU’s 74-70 Victory Over Arizona State Ends Nine-Game Pac-10 Road Losing Streak

Isaac Fontaine touched the basketball exactly four times on offense during the final 6 minutes of Saturday afternoon’s basketball game at Arizona State’s University Activities Center.

For ASU, that was two times too many.

Fontaine made the go-ahead 3-pointer with 1:01 left and grabbed a critical rebound in the final 8 seconds as Washington State won its first and last Pacific-10 Conference road game of the season, 74-70 over the snakebit Sun Devils.

“I think it’s big for us,” said Fontaine, who scored 21 points in 29 foul-plagued minutes. “Coach was telling us that you don’t want any zeroes on any type of your records, and we had zero (Pac-10) wins on the road.”

When Fontaine wasn’t firing away from the perimeter and matching a career-high with five 3-pointers, Carlos Daniel was exploiting the absence of injured ASU center Rodger Farrington.

Daniel finished with 21 points, nine rebounds and two blocked shots. He also played defense, an aspect Daniel overlooked while scoring 26 points in Thursday night’s 100-86 loss at Arizona.

Arizona forward Donnell Harris enjoyed a career night in that game; ASU’s Mike Batiste managed just 13 points and four rebounds.

“This game, I took it a little bit more personal to go out there and play some defense,” said Daniel, whose parents and 2-year-old son were among the 3,211 in attendance. “They have really good guards and we can’t let people that aren’t supposed to beat us, beat us.

“I think that was a big factor in the Arizona game.”

WSU point guard Blake Pengelly, effective for a half against Arizona, played a more complete game as well, even if he couldn’t keep ASU senior Jeremy Veal from racking up 26 points and eight assists.

Veal, fresh off a 31-point showing in Thursday night’s 72-69 loss to Washington, burned Pengelly and the Cougars for 26, while also dishing out a game-high eight assists.

But Pengelly’s value was in running the offense. Starting in place of injured senior Kareem Jackson, who suffered a concussion against Arizona, Pengelly had 12 points, six assists and just one turnover.

“Six assists?” Pengelly inquired, double-checking the stat sheet. “It’s about time I had some assists.”

In playing a career-high 36 minutes, the 5-foot-9 freshman appeared to fully settle into an offensive rhythm.

“With the unfortunate injury to Kareem (expected back this week), it’s left an opportunity for me to get that experience and get in the game where I am in the flow,” Pengelly said. “It just feels really good.”

It felt a lot better because of Fontaine, who bailed out Pengelly with his late rebound.

WSU led 73-70 with 8.5 seconds left when Pengelly missed the front end of a one-and-one. That’s when Fontaine alertly swooped in for the rebound, ultimately tying up Batiste for a jump ball.

The possession arrow favored the Cougars, forcing ASU to foul. WSU’s Cameron Johnson secured the outcome by making 1 of 2 free throws with 5.4 seconds left.

For WSU (13-15, 5-11 Pac-10), the victory snapped a nine-game Pac-10 road losing streak dating to March 7 of last year, when the Cougars defeated USC 69-62.

The Sun Devils finished 10-18, 2-14.

Fontaine, the WSU senior and career scoring leader, had 13 points in the first 12 minutes, but was called for his third personal foul with 7:01 left in the half - even though teammate Beau Archibald was the only player to make contact with Veal on the potentially critical play.

With Fontaine sidelined for the final 5:53 of the half and Daniel in and out of the lineup with two personals, the Cougars went scoreless for more than 3 minutes. They needed four points from Pengelly and two from Rodrigo de la Fuente to stay within 40-38 heading into halftime.

Washington St. 74, Arizona St. 70

Washington St (13-15)- de la Fuente 4-10 3-3 11, Johnson 1-1 1-3 3, Daniel 9-14 2-3 20, Pengelly 3-3 5-7 12, Fontaine 6-11 4-5 21, Crosby 1-4 0-0 2, Slotemaker 0-0 0-0 0, Archibald 2-5 0-0 5, Totals 26-48 15-21 74.

Arizona St. (10-18)- Batiste 5-10 3-5 13, Brewer 6-14 1-1 13, Richardson 2-4 1-4 5, House 2-6 0-0 5, Veal 10-16 3-5 26, Kelly 2-3 2-2 6, Lewis 1-3 0-0 2, Gervin 0-0 0-0 0, Totals 28-56 10-17 70.

Halftime-Arizona St. 40, Washington St. 38. 3-Point Goals- Washington St. 7-16 (Fontaine 5-8, Pengelly 1-1, Archibald 1-3, Crosby 0-2, de la Fuente 0-2), Arizona St. 4-15 (Veal 3-6, House 1-4, Batiste 0-1, Brewer 0-2, Lewis 0-2). Fouled Out-Brewer. Rebounds-Washington St. 29 (Daniel 9), Arizona St. 27 (Brewer 6). Assists-Washington St. 21 (Pengelly 6), Arizona St. 24 (Veal 8). Total Fouls-Washington St. 17, Arizona St. 18. Technical-Arizona State bench. A-3,211.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo