Devils Get Past Cougars Second-Half Momentum, Lead Escape Washington State

For Carolyn Evans, it was another night of hand-wringing anguish and temple-pounding stress. By now the wife of Arizona State basketball coach Rob Evans is used to it.

But that doesn’t mean she likes it.

“See all these gray hairs I’m getting,” she said while still emotionally spent.

Well, she got a few more Thursday night as Rob Evans’ Sun Devils barely got their act together in time to squeak out a 69-64 win over Washington State at Friel Court.

With the loss, the Cougars fell to 9-12 overall and 3-7 in the Pac-10. Arizona State moved to 13-9, 5-5.

The Sun Devils, who had lost the opening game of 11 straight Pac-10 road trips coming into the game, were able to wrestle away a game the Cougars clearly had control of in the second half.

Washington State led by six points, 59-53, with 4:36 left and was dictating the pace.

“I felt comfortable right then,” said Steve Slotemaker. “I was screaming at the team from the bench to get one stop and we would be fine.”

The stop didn’t happen.

Then ASU’s Eddie House hit a 3-pointer with Chris Crosby draped all over him. That touched off an 8-0 run for the Sun Devils and they took a 61-59 lead with 2:50 left. “He’s a big-time player,” said Evans. “He wants the ball in his hands when it’s crunch time.” Thing is, so does WSU’s Jan-Michael Thomas.

And the junior answered the ASU run with a bank shot from 24 feet. That 3-pointer, his fifth of the night, put the Cougars back on top, 62-61.

From there, the WSU fizzled.

Still clinging to a one-point lead with 1:04 remaining, the Cougars tried to reverse the ball at the top of the arc and set up a play. But ASU’s Mike Batiste stepped into the passing lane and grabbed the ball. He went for a dunk at the other end to give the Sun Devils the lead for good, 63-62.

“They were pretty athletic out there,” said WSU point guard Blake Pengelly, who had only one of his team’s 21 turnovers. “They were longer (taller) than us and making everything pretty difficult.”

But even after the breakaway dunk, the Cougars still had a chance to win their first back-to-back Pac-10 games since the start of the 1996-97 season.

Kojo Mensah-Bonsu got a good look on the inside with 35 seconds left but the shot was too hard.

House, a 77 percent free-throw shooter, was quickly fouled. He made both. Crosby answered at the other end with two foul shots to make it a one-point game, 65-64 with 17 seconds left.

Mike Bush then fouled House before the ball could be in-bounded. He made both. “We didn’t want to foul anyone there,” said WSU coach Kevin Eastman. “You don’t foul with 17 seconds left. You want a chance to get the in-bound pass.”

The Cougars threw the ball away on the next possession, and the Sun Devils were able to breathe a sigh of relief. In the first half, the inside shooting of the Sun Devils bedeviled the Cougars.

Mensah-Bonsu and Eddie Miller, the two WSU post players, each picked up two quick fouls and that allowed ASU to attack the basket. In fact, 12 of the 14 shots made by the Sun Devils in the first half were from 5 feet and in.

Washington State will play host to Arizona at 3 p.m. on Saturday.

Arizona St. 69, WSU 64

Arizona St. (13-9) - Lazor 9-13 1-6 20, Batiste 6-14 3-4 16, House 5-14 6-6 19, Crandall 1-4 0-0 3, Mason 4-9 0-0 8, Tape 0-0 0-0 0, DuBois 0-0 0-0 0, Patton 1-2 0-0 2, Oziwo 0-0 0-0 0, Prewitt 0-1 1-2 1. Totals 26-57 11-18 69.

Washington St. (9-12) - Bush 4-5 1-3 9, MensahBonsu 2-8 2-4 6, Miller 3-8 2-2 8, Thomas 5-9 4-4 19, Kazadi 1-2 0-1 2, Pengelly 2-5 0-0 4, Crosby 3-4 3-4 11, Stewart 0-0 0-0 0, Slotemaker 1-4 2-4 4, Nelson 0-0 1-2 1. Totals 21-45 15-24 64.

Halftime-Arizona St. 34, Washington St. 31. 3-Point goals-Arizona St. 6-17 (Lazor 1-3, Batiste 1-1, House 3-6, Crandall 1-3, Mason 0-3, Patton 0-1), Washington St. 7-17 (Thomas 5-9, Pengelly 0-3, Crosby 2-3). Fouled out-None. Rebounds-Arizona St. 33 (House 11), Washington St. 31 (Crosby 6). Assists-Arizona St. 12 (House 3), Washington St. 6 (Pengelly, Crosby 2). Total fouls-Arizona St. 20, Washington St. 17. A-4,125.