WSU Comes Oh, So Close Again Stanford Scrambles To A Narrow Victory With Help Of Home Team’S Cold Shooting Cardinal 64 Cougars 58

Add Stanford to the list of almosts. Just like Oregon, UCLA, Arizona State and Arizona, Washington State almost beat No. 7 Stanford when it came to town.

But just like those other games, this chance slipped away down the stretch. This time, the result was a 64-58 loss at Friel Court on Saturday night.

“We had our chances tonight to really do something,” said Chris Crosby. “We took ourselves out of it by missing some shots.”

In all, the Cougars missed 45 shots and made just 21 for 32 percent. But it was the ones down the stretch that cost them the most.

With WSU trailing by two points, Crosby’s 3-pointer was halfway down before it spun out. The next possession, now trailing by four, Jan-Michael Thomas missed a 3-pointer.

With the Cougars down by five and a little more than a minute to go, Kojo Mensah-Bonsu missed a jumper.

“Some nights those go in and some nights they don’t,” said Crosby.

Unfortunately, for the Cougars (10-16, 4-11), most nights those shots don’t go in. For Stanford (22-5, 12-2) the right shot went in just at the right time.

Clinging to a two-point lead with 2:30 remaining David Moseley got free on the perimeter and knocked down a 3-pointer to push the Cardinal’s lead to 57-52. Crosby, who was guarding Moseley, had gone to double down on Tim Young.

Young looked over the double team and found Moseley, who had moved to the other side of the court.

The junior was wide open for Stanford’s third and most important 3-pointer.

“It (doubling down) was just a mental thing that I shouldn’t have done,” said Crosby. “But we were just being so aggressive and going after every ball we could at that point.

“That’s going to stick with me for a while.”

The free-throw shooting disparity may also stick with the Cougars for a while.

Washington State attempted 13 free throws and made 10. Stanford attempted 40, making 29.

“Reputation-wise Stanford is the most physical team in the league,” said WSU coach Kevin Eastman. “I guess tonight we were. And you can’t defend the free-throw line.”

“It was a physical game,’ agreed Young, who scored nine of his team-high 15 points from the line. “They had Leif (Nelson) in there and he was banging.

“You look at what we shot (39 percent) and what they shot (32) and you know it was a game of defense,” the center continued. “Everybody was just being real aggressive and going after everything.”

It was that aggressiveness that allowed the Cougars to hang with the Cardinal.

Five-foot-10 Blake Pengelly was setting picks on the 7-foot-2 Young. Nelson was grabbing offense rebounds and scoring. Mensah-Bonsu was dunking over guys taller and wider than the Tower of London.

And Washington State was hanging in, even beating Stanford in the first half.

“You know everybody came to see Stanford,” said Pengelly “And then with that great start, everybody started to think we had a chance to win. Then they were excited for the rest of the game and stayed with us the whole time.”

That emotional boost at the start was easily attributed to the five WSU seniors starting their final home game. Paced by Will Hutchens, Nelson and Mensah-Bonsu the Cougars scored the first seven points.

But Stanford came back with the next 14 points. Scenes of the 49-point blowout in Palo Alto started to become more vivid and the crowd started to become more and more silent.

That lead wouldn’t last.

“We could have had a nice cushion,” said Stanford coach Mike Montgomery. “But they just kept coming back.”

Pengelly hit a 3-pointer, Eddie Miller scored on a three-point play and Crosby hit one from beyond the arc. And all of the sudden it was a game again.

“The thing we didn’t want to do was give up a 3,” said Montgomery. “And we had some mess-ups.”

But by the second half, Stanford had corrected its mistakes and only allowed two more 3-pointers.

Then they had to worry about Nelson on the inside.

“He hurt us,” said Montgomery. Nelson, who had nine points total in the previous 13 conference games and 10 against Stanford, continued to get position on the blocks, take up space, tip balls and come up with the big plays.

“Playing against a bigger guy, they (the refs) allow us to do a little more,” said Nelson. “That’s more my game.

“Hopefully I leave more bruises than I receive.”

The battered and bruised Cougars travel to UCLA on Thursday night.

No. 7 Stanford 64, WSU 58

Stanford (22-5) - Sauer 2-6 0-2 4, Madsen 4-6 1-3 9, Young 3-7 9-10 15, Weems 3-6 5-7 12, Lee 0-5 8-9 8, McDonald 0-2 2-2 2, Moseley 4-7 3-5 13, Collins 0-2 1-2 1, Seaton 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 16-41 29-40 64.

Washington St. (10-16) - Mensah-Bonsu 5-16 5-6 15, Slotemaker 0-4 0-0 0, Nelson 4-8 2-4 10, Kazadi 0-0 0-0 0, Hutchens 1-2 0-0 3, Pengelly 1-4 0-0 3, Thomas 1-8 0-0 3, Bush 1-1 0-0 2, Crosby 5-14 2-2 15, Stewart 1-4 0-0 2, Miller 2-5 1-1 5. Totals 21-66 10-13 58.

Halftime-Stanford 32, Washington St. 32. 3-Point goals- Stanford 3-8 (Moseley 2-3, Weems 1-2, Lee 0-1, Sauer 0-2), Washington St. 6-25 (Crosby 3-8, Hutchens 1-2, Pengelly 1-2, Thomas 1-8, Mensah-Bonsu 0-2, Slotemaker 0-3). Fouled out- Bush. Rebounds-Stanford 45 (Madsen 12), Washington St. 31 (Mensah-Bonsu, Stewart 6). Assists-Stanford 12 (Young 4), Washington St. 12 (Bush 5). Total fouls-Stanford 14, Washington St. 27. A-6,432.