WSU must bear narrow loss to Cal

PULLMAN – It’s become less a matter of what the Cougars do and more an issue of how they do it.

That Washington State lost another Pacific-10 basketball game – this one to first-place California – is no surprise. Thursday night’s 43-41 loss, however, bore little resemblance to the blowout defeats WSU has suffered lately.

Instead, the game came out of the “close-loss-with-a-chance-at-the-end” template that the Cougars have crafted so elegantly over the past two seasons.

Forward Robbie Cowgill had a chance to tie the game in the closing seconds, but his runner down the lane bounced off the rim. The 3,021 fans at Friel Court were left to scratch their heads along with the Cougars (11-13, 4-11) to try and figure out what has to change before the narrow losses turn into important wins.

“I wish I would have stepped back, but I was going toward the basket,” Cowgill said of the final shot. “Eventually, you’re like, ‘Well, we deserve to win a few of these games.’ “

The Golden Bears (17-7, 11-4) are NCAA Tournament-bound, but they found themselves dragged into exactly the type of slugfest they had hoped to avoid. Five players scored for Cal and two – Leon Powe with 21 points and Ayinde Ubaka with 14 – accounted for all but eight. Though the margin was the same, the game was played at a slower tempo than Cal’s 55-53 win over WSU in Berkeley earlier this year.

“It just feels like everything’s in slow motion,” Powe said. “I don’t like playing this team. They give me headaches.”

Cal nearly notched a game-sealing bucket before the final possession, but Powe was blocked by Ivory Clark with 11 seconds left, allowing WSU to call a timeout and set up the last play. Twice the Cougars attempted to hand the ball off to guard Josh Akognon, but Cal had two fouls to give and used both, forcing WSU to run a faster-developing play.

“I was taking a 3, yeah,” Akognon confirmed when asked if he was going for the win and not the tie. “And I was going to make it.”

Akognon scored all seven of his points in the second half, and that was nearly enough to lead the Cougars. (Derrick Low’s eight points were a team high.)

The Cougars remained in their offensive funk – they have scored 30, 37 and 41 in three of the last five games – and even a stellar defensive effort on the home court wasn’t enough.

“We just need to have good play from everybody,” said head coach Dick Bennett, whose team got little in the low post.

Having Kyle Weaver on the floor would have helped, but the Cougars guard left with a sprained left ankle when his foot came down on Clark’s after making a layup with 11:08 left to play.

“We’re not really running our offense hard enough to score,” Cowgill said. “What are you going to do? Maybe those shots will come with more experience in the next few years.”