Another Victory Eludes Cougars Washington Prevails In Final Minutes

Remarkably, Washington State did it again.

No, not win. Don’t be ridiculous. That would be two straight Pac-10 wins and that hasn’t happened at WSU since 1997.

What the Cougars did was lose 64-60 to Washington at KeyArena Saturday. And they lost in the same fashion as they lost to Oregon State, Oregon, Arizona, Arizona State, Washington (the first time) and UT Pan American - in the final minutes.

WSU is now 6-20, 1-15. Washington moves to 10-18 and 5-11.

“If they had a top 10 for close games, we’d been in it,” said WSU coach Paul Graham.

If someone needed a poster child for crumbling down the stretch, the Cougars would be a clear-cut choice for that as well. This time, the Cougars allowed Washington to go on a 9-0 run with 4:33 left to take an insurmountable seven-point lead with 1 minute remaining.

“We are up five and then we have three or four turnovers,” said WSU guard Mike Bush. “It kind of sums up our whole season.”

“It’s a heart issue,” added point guard Cedric Clark. “It’s just who wants it most. We got to grit down and in that last minute push harder than the other team. We didn’t put forth that effort.”

On offense or defense.

Up two points with 4:54 remaining, the Cougars had their next four possessions go as follows: turnover, airball, turnover, turnover. The Huskies scored three layups on those four failed possessions to take the lead.

“Our defense, which is good, got tired,” said Graham. “Then we had guys with four fouls; Tyrone (Evans), Eddie (Miller) and those guys they became less aggressive.”

Washington did just the opposite.

“Offensively we made some plays that were critical and very simple,” said UW coach Bob Bender. “They had a lot of guys with four fouls and we told our guys to take it to the hoop and not settle for jump shots.”

Washington State did get two 3-point jump shots from Chris Crosby to give the Cougars some hope in the last minute. But UW dashed any hopes of a comeback by knocking down 3 of 4 free throws.

Graham, who is coming off a game where he picked up three technical fouls, again was miffed by the officiating.

“Mike Bush, he gets it knocked out of him and they don’t even call it,” the coach said. “And then Cedric, whether he had his hands on him (Senque Carey) or not, they call it.”

The Huskies went to the freethrow line 25 times. The Cougars 10.

But blame should not be placed anywhere but on the shoulders of the Cougars for this loss. Washington State controlled most of the game. The Cougs took an early lead and only briefly gave it up throughout the game before the final run. They shut down shooter Deon Luton. The senior went 4 of 10 for 15 points.

Washington State shot better than 40 percent in each half (44 and 45) for only the second time in more than a month. Crosby and Bush were both in double figures with 18 and 14 points respectively. Clark played his best game of the year at point guard.

And the Cougars controlled the boards until the last 5 minutes. But those last 5 minutes doomed them.

“We quit getting the loose balls,” said Graham. “ The big play down here (on UW’s end of the floor), we didn’t block out, Bryan Whitehead is in the game, and they get it and they jam it back in the hole.”

“Sometimes when you going through a hard stretch like we are, you can see that on player’s face, that `Here we go again,”’ said Clark. “If we had a little more umph in a lot of those (close) games, we’d be in a different position.”

But the Cougars haven’t had much this season. So off they go next to Los Angeles for the final road trip of the season, trying to avoid becoming only the second WSU squad to go 1-17 since the Pac-10 was formed.

Washington 64, Washington St. 60

Washington State (6-20)-Crosby 7-19 3-3 18, Miller 2-8 2-4 6, Bush 5-12 3-3 14, Clark 3-3 0-0 6, Adams 3-6 0-0 6, Mencke 1-2 0-0 2, Riley 0-0 0-0 0, Evans 4-5 0-0 8, Whitehead 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 25-55 8-10 60.

Washington (10-18)-Walcott 3-7 3-3 9, Green 3-6 0-1 6, Luton 4-10 6-8 15, Moritz 0-0 0-0 0, Johnson 1-4 0-0 2, Perkins 4-5 1-1 9, Carey 4-7 1-2 9, Clark 3-5 3-6 9, Brown 1-2 3-4 5, Shelton 0-1 0-0 0, Dixon 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 23-48 17-25 64.

Halftime-Washington State 30, Washington 28. 3-Point goals-Washington State 2-10 (Bush 1-2, Crosby 1-6, Adams 0-2), Washington 1-11 (Luton 1-4, Johnson 0-1, Clark 0-1, Brown 0-1, Walcott 0-2, Carey 0-2). Fouled out-None. Rebounds- Washington State 29 (Crosby 7), Washington 32 (Walcott 8). Assists-Washington State 6 (Bush, Clark, Adams 2), Washington 8 (Brown 3). Total fouls-Washington State 25, Washington 16. A-9,053.