Cougars bounce right back
PULLMAN – For a while, it looked like the worst was happening all over again.
Washington State University, on the heels of a 30-point effort Thursday night against UCLA, had just 20 in the first half Saturday afternoon in their Pac-10 basketball game against USC and had failed – again – to shoot better than 28 percent from the floor.
But this time, the offensive misery wasn’t to last any longer. The Cougars snapped out of their prolonged funk and scored 40 in the second half to win 60-47 before 4,007 fans at Beasley Coliseum.
“It was embarrassing against UCLA, scoring only 30,” WSU sophomore guard Josh Akognon said. “We’ve come back a lot this year, actually. In the back of our minds, we have confidence that we know we’re coming back.”
As much as the offensive output helped WSU (11-10, 4-8 Pac-10), it was a similarly assertive move on defense that really helped the Cougars against the Trojans (15-9, 6-7).
WSU sophomore forward Robbie Cowgill approached head coach Dick Bennett hours before the opening tip to request defensive duty on USC guard Nick Young, who torched the Cougars for 32 points in Los Angeles last month.
When Bennett gave him the assignment, Cowgill responded, holding Young to 10 points on just 2-of-16 shooting.
“In the first game when I did guard him, he tended to pass up some deeper shots,” Cowgill said. “I thought maybe my length could bother him.”
Cowgill had gone 1 of 11 from the floor in the UCLA loss despite having a number of open looks. On Saturday – even though his shooting was still off – he posted his first career double-double with 11 points and 13 rebounds in addition to the defensive effort on Young.
“He took it very hard,” Bennett said of Cowgill after Thursday’s game. “I hope this was kind of a coming out for Robbie as a defensive player. We thought that he might have the ability to become a very good defender on the perimeter.”
Akognon also regained his scoring touch, coming off the bench to tally a game-high 16 points in 22 minutes. With Derrick Low back in the starting lineup for the first time in 2006, Kyle Weaver was able to move to the wing, where he scored 10 points to go with five rebounds and four assists.
Low struggled with his shot, missing all four of his 3-point attempts and half of his six free throws in 26 minutes. But his presence alone on the floor seemed to help settle the Cougars, playing with their other guards in more natural roles.
“What it does, more than anything, is it takes the pressure off Kyle to make all the decisions,” Bennett said. “Kyle’s a bit of a riverboat gambler. You get Kyle and Josh as your two guards, and keep the women and children in the house. You just don’t know what’s going to happen.”
The Cougars erased any danger of a UCLA hangover and earned their second win in a three-game homestand before traveling to the Oregon schools next.
“After Thursday there was a lot of self-doubt,” Bennett said. “Any win for us is important.”
Notes
USC shot 27.6 percent from the floor, and no one other than Young reached double figures. … The Cougars hit 12 of 18 field goals and 14 of 18 free throws in the second half to ice the game. … Forward Rodney Edgerson is out for the year after a bone scan confirmed that the junior still has hairline fractures in his lower back. “It”s probably the most frustrating thing I’ve ever been through,” said Edgerson, who will be re-evaluated in two or three months.
WSU 60, USC 47
| USC | FG | FT | Reb | ||||
| (15-9, 6-7) | Min | M-A | M-A | O-T | A | PF | PTS |
| Gaudino | 18 | 1-1 | 0-0 | 1-2 | 0 | 4 | 2 |
| Barr | 7 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Young | 38 | 2-16 | 6-8 | 3-8 | 1 | 2 | 10 |
| Francis | 31 | 2-5 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 1 | 2 | 6 |
| Shackleford | 31 | 3-10 | 0-0 | 0-3 | 5 | 3 | 8 |
| Stewart | 29 | 2-10 | 0-0 | 0-5 | 1 | 3 | 5 |
| N’Diaye | 22 | 3-7 | 2-3 | 5-9 | 0 | 2 | 8 |
| Odzic | 23 | 3-9 | 0-0 | 1-2 | 2 | 2 | 8 |
| Totals | 199 | 16-58 | 8-11 | 12-33 | 10 | 19 | 47 |
Percentages: FG .276, FT .727. 3-Point Goals: 7-26, .269 (Francis 2-3, Shackleford 2-6, Odzic 2-6, Stewart 1-7, Young 0-4). Team Rebounds: 2. Blocked Shots: 0. Turnovers: 11 (Young 5, Francis 2, Shackleford 2, Stewart, N’Diaye). Steals: 3 (Shackleford 2, Francis). Technical Fouls: None.
| WSU | FG | FT | Reb | ||||
| (11-10, 4-8) | Min | M-A | M-A | O-T | A | PF | PTS |
| Cowgill | 38 | 3-8 | 5-5 | 2-13 | 1 | 2 | 11 |
| Baynes | 17 | 2-4 | 1-1 | 3-7 | 0 | 3 | 5 |
| Low | 26 | 1-5 | 3-6 | 0-2 | 3 | 0 | 5 |
| Chavers | 15 | 1-3 | 1-2 | 0-0 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| Weaver | 36 | 5-7 | 0-0 | 0-5 | 4 | 2 | 10 |
| Akognon | 22 | 5-10 | 5-5 | 0-3 | 0 | 2 | 16 |
| Matthews | 8 | 1-3 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| Green | 15 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Clark | 5 | 0-2 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Henry | 3 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Forrest | 15 | 2-4 | 1-2 | 0-0 | 0 | 3 | 6 |
| Totals | 200 | 20-47 | 16-21 | 8-38 | 12 | 14 | 60 |
Percentages: FG .426, FT .762. 3-Point Goals: 4-12, .333 (Chavers 1-1, Forrest 1-1, Matthews 1-2, Akognon 1-3, Green 0-1, Low 0-4). Team Rebounds: 5. Blocked Shots: 7 (Cowgill 4, Baynes, Weaver, Forrest). Turnovers: 15 (Baynes 5, Low 3, Cowgill 2, Weaver 2, Chavers, Akognon, Green). Steals: 5 (Weaver 2, Low, Green, Clark). Technical Fouls: None.
Halftime–Southern California 20, Washington State 20. A–4,007.