No heart, no win

PULLMAN – Dick Bennett sat down to talk to the media following Thursday’s night’s loss to UCLA and apologized.

The apology was for his tardy arrival – about a half-hour of ranting directed at his team preceded it – but it might as well have been for the game his team turned in against the No. 13 team in the nation.

Two points in the first nine minutes. Twelve in the first half. Twenty in 32 minutes. And, in the end, a 50-30 loss.

“They basically took our heart early,” Bennett said, just days after his team scored 77 in a win over archrival Washington. “Here, you win a big game, you’ve got folks looking for you. You’ve got a chance. And we come out like we did.”

Washington State (10-10, 3-8 Pac-10) fell on its face after the opening tip – as it has often this season. But where other teams, lesser opponents, have allowed the Cougars back in the game, the Bruins were content to accept the glacier-like pace and watch the home team melt.

UCLA (20-4, 10-2) took an 18-2 lead and toyed with WSU for the remaining 33 minutes of the game while Bennett substituted with abandon, furiously trying to find a combination that would rescue a lifeless Cougar squad.

Ten WSU players saw the floor in the first 8 minutes, including point guard Derrick Low, who ended up playing 8 minutes in three stints in his first game action since suffering a broken foot Jan. 3. Low did not take a shot and will probably be available for more spot duty Saturday against USC.

“This is the worst of it, but this scenario has played out in every conference game this year,” Bennett said of the slow start. “I must say that this is a game that we were just dominated by a vastly superior group of players and coach.”

While first-place UCLA was able to milk the shot clock down and get buckets from Jordan Farmar, who had a game-high 20 points, WSU found itself unable to generate any useful offense at all in the first half.

Finally, Bennett instructed his team to throw the ball into the low post, where Aron Baynes and Robbie Cowgill found open looks.

But Baynes’ team-high 10 points meant little as Cowgill went 1 of 11 from the floor, missing open look after open look.

“Of those 11, how many of those do you think were bad shots?” Bennett asked. “I don’t think any of them. He just couldn’t (make them). And that’s physical, mental intimidation.”

Said Cowgill: “You’ve got to be able to finish in traffic and I was missing even the ones where I wasn’t in traffic. No excuse, nothing different. I’m 6-10 and missing layups, that’s a thing that costs you games.”

The 30 points were the fewest by WSU ever on Friel Court and its lowest point total at home since a 51-30 loss to Oregon State on Feb. 24, 1947.

“We are not a team that has the comeback potential,” Bennett said. “We picked an awful night to just not even be able to find the basket.”

Notes

The Cougars failed to make a 3-pointer (0 of 7) for the first time since Feb. 18, 1995, with a span of 300 games in between. … No Cougar aside from Baynes had more than four points. … The Cougars shot 27.5 percent from the floor.