To Get Technical About It, Sun Devils Rout Cougars

It could have been just a simple blowout.

After all, Arizona State was up by 19 and on its way to a 91-63 win over Washington State on Saturday night.

But it wasn’t. The Cougars’ second consecutive loss was reduced to this: Kab Kazadi getting ejected at the 1:17 mark and Kevin Eastman heading out right behind him. Coach and player both ejected - both for the first time in their careers at Washington State.

Here’s what happened: Washington State (7-7, 1-2) had lost control of a game it had a tenuous hold on 10 minutes earlier. Kazadi was going up the floor with ASU’s Bobby Lazor. Official Steve Wilson whistled Kazadi for a flagrant foul, which nobody saw, and ejected him from the game.

Wilson then assessed a technical foul on the WSU bench.

Eastman, who at first played dumb and didn’t replace Kazadi, became upset and tried to tell Wilson the bench technical was something said by a spectator, not a member of the WSU team.

Wilson, a high school principal in Tucson, walked away from the bench and warned Eastman not to approach him. Eastman, who had been ejected once when he coached at UNC-Wilmington, tried to plead his case to another official. When that failed, he stood 5 feet on the court and stared at Wilson.

Wilson assessed him a technical and ejected him.

“I have to look at the film,” said Eastman when asked what happened. “I’ll just leave that one at that.”

As for the game, when the Cougars look at the film, they will realize how much they missed the presence of Jan-Michael Thomas.

Thomas, who lit up Arizona for 34 points on Thursday night, contracted a stomach virus late Friday night. He was at a hospital until 7:30 a.m. Saturday, receiving fluids. He attended the game but was too sick to play and spent the night behind the bench with his head covered by the hood of his sweatsuit.

Without Thomas, who is shooting 47 percent from the arc, the Cougars were 1 for 13 from long range. Their previous low was 4 for 17 in a loss to Division II Alaska-Fairbanks.

“When you have two shooters out there, it’s a little bit more difficult to defend,” said Eastman. “If (Steve) Slotemaker could have hit a couple of those when we put him in … but he just couldn’t. So, consequently, they could key on one guy.”

That guy was Chris Crosby. And after an early 3-pointer, he was forced to drive for the rest of his team-high 18 points.

But early on, the lack of outside shooting didn’t faze the Cougars. Mike Bush, Thomas’ replacement, was all over ASU’s leading scorer Eddie House, forcing him to miss his first six shots. In fact, for the first 12 minutes they held as much as a seven-point lead.

“At first, it just seemed like we came out and we didn’t want to play,” said House, who had 20 points and was one of five ASU players in double figures. “Then, at about that 8-minute mark, we turned it on.”

Well, it was the 7-minute mark. But House was right about the run. The Sun Devils went on a 19-4 surge, aided by four WSU turnovers and a lack of production when the Cougars did manage to hold onto the ball.

“It just kind of drained on us, we couldn’t convert offensively,” said point guard Blake Pengelly. “We came out strong and they came back and attacked us and we didn’t respond at all.”

“The defense tightened down on the pressing lanes and it really took us right out of what we wanted to do,” he added.

The Cougars did manage to cut the lead to six points, 38-32 by halftime, and hung around for the first 10 minutes of the second half. But they lost forward Eddie Miller to a groin injury, and their other interior player Kojo Mensah-Bonsu was having an off shooting night (2 of 13).

Washington State was only trailing by four after Mensah-Bonsu hit two free throws with 9:58 to go.

But House hit a 3-pointer, and the Cougars offense faltered. They coughed up the ball and missed three straight 3-pointers. Each time, the Sun Devils were able to convert on their end and the rout was on.

Arizona St. 91, Washington St. 63

Washington State (7-7, 1-2) - Mensah-Bonsu 2-13 11-13 15, Crosby 7-16 3-3 18, Miller 5-9 2-2 12, Pengelly 1-3 0-0 2, Bush 2-6 4-4 8, Kazadi 0-4 2-2 2, Stewart 0-0 0-0 0, Slotemaker 3-7 0-0 6, Hutchens 0-0 0-0 0, Nelson 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 20-58 22-24 63.

Arizona State (10-6, 2-2) - Lazor 6-11 9-10 21, Crandall 2-5 6-7 12, Batiste 6-8 4-5 17, House 7-18 3-3 20, Mason 4-9 4-6 13, Davis 1-2 0-0 2, DuBois 0-0 0-0 0, Prewitt 1-3 0-0 2, Tape 0-0 0-0 0, Davis 1-2 0-0 2, Oziwo 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 28-57 28-33 91.

Halftime-Arizona State 38, Washington State 32. 3-Point goals-Washington State 1-13 (Crosby 1-6, Kazadi 0-1, Pengelly 0-2, Bush 0-2, Slotemaker 0-2), Arizona State 7-16 (House 3-5, Crandall 2-3, Batiste 1-1, Mason 1-4, Davis 0-1, Lazor 0-2). Rebounds-Washington State 33 (Mensah-Bonsu 11), Arizona State 39 (Batiste 14). Assists-Washington State 10 (Pengelly 5), Arizona State 18 (House 6). Total fouls- Washington State 23, Arizona State 19. Technicals- Washington State coach Eastman 2 (ejected). Ejections-Kazadi. A-5,908.