No storybook finish

LOS ANGELES – Whatever slim hope still left for a fairy-tale ending to Dick Bennett’s coaching career is gone.

The Cougars lost 66-55 to Oregon Wednesday night at the Pac-10 basketball tournament, Washington State University’s seventh straight loss to finish a season that the team and its coach might rather forget.

WSU started this season 9-3, but managed to lose 14 of the last 16 games to finish the year 11-17 – the worst record of Bennett’s three-year tenure at WSU. That translated into a last-place finish in the Pac-10, a distinction it backed up with one final defeat that ended the season and sent Bennett into his retirement, announced officially last week.

“It won’t (hit me) for a while,” Bennett said. “It’s been over a thousand games in 40 years. A lot of losses, and that’s always the overwhelming feeling.”

The end for Bennett came quietly, his team unable to find the will or the power to combat an Oregon squad that was both more talented and more confident on the Staples Center floor.

The head coach spent much of the second half sitting quietly in his chair, lines of disappointment creasing his face as Oregon maintained a comfortable lead. The Cougars briefly cut the deficit to seven with just more than 5 minutes left, but it was nothing more than a temporary nuisance to the Ducks, who quickly pushed the lead back into double digits and were never threatened thereafter.

“I wish we’d had a chance down the stretch,” Bennett said. “I’d like to have gone out coaching a little bit. But it wasn’t to be.”

Bennett’s three-year record at WSU was 36-49, and his career record at four collegiate stops 490-306, with the Cougars program now handed down to his son, Tony.

“There was no way I was going to let my son have these three years,” the 62-year-old coach said. “I’m not saying it’s going to be a whole lot better, but it will not be worse.

“Believe me, I didn’t need to come out and get my ears pinned back for three years. But I also didn’t feel I needed to prove anything. This is something I did for love more than ego. Maybe it’s the first time in my life I did something like that.”

The Cougars fell behind early as has been the case in almost every game this season, thanks to a barrage of outside shooting by the Ducks.

Chamberlain Oguchi alone nailed five consecutive 3-pointers after missing one in the first 6:52 of the game, and as a team Oregon was 7 of 18 from behind the arc in the first half. (Before Thursday night, no team had made 10 3-pointers in a game all season.) Oguchi’s 21 first-half points and game-high 26 points were more than enough to keep the Cougars at bay. Malik Hairston added 21 points as well.

WSU, meanwhile, continued its abysmal outside shooting – a staple of the late-season slide – by going 5 of 17 from long range.

“We wanted to get him as many wins as we could this year,” said center Aron Baynes, who had a team-high 14 points for WSU. “I don’t know, it definitely would be tough after 40 years. It’s all he’s known and he has to move on now. He’s still been a great coach to us all.”

Notes

The Cougars blocked five shots to tie a school record, also held by the 1985-86 team, with 130 on the season. … The Cougars have lost 11 consecutive games to Oregon and 19 of the last 20, with WSU’s last win coming in 2001. … The Staples Center had an announced first-day attendance of 7,936, though far fewer were there by the opening tip.

Oregon State 71, Arizona State 68: Kyle Jeffers had 20 points and nine rebounds to lead Oregon State to a 71-68 victory over Arizona State in the opening game.

Ninth-seeded OSU (13-17) faces the regular-season champion and top seed, No. 13 UCLA, in today’s quarterfinals.

ASU (11-17) had beaten OSU in both their regular-season meetings and was seeded No. 8 in the tournament.

Jeffers, a 6-foot-9 junior center, sparked a second-half comeback when the Beavers rallied from a 15-point deficit.

OSU, which won despite a lineup riddled by injuries, barely held on for the victory.

After going 7:11 without a field goal and falling behind 71-61 with 1:58 to play, the Sun Devils came back to close within three points and had the ball in the closing seconds. But Kevin Kruger, who led ASU with 22 points on 5-of-7 shooting from beyond the arc, threw a pass out of bounds to waste the Sun Devils’ final chance to tie it.

Chris Stephens added 14 points for Oregon State. Bryson Krueger had 16 for ASU.

Oregon 66, Wash. St. 55

Percentages: FG .364, FT .833. 3-Point Goals: 5-17, .294 (Matthews 3-8, Forrest 1-1, Akognon 1-5, Weaver 0-1, Low 0-2). Team Rebounds: 3. Blocked Shots: 5 (Cowgill 3). Turnovers: 12 (Low 6). Steals: 4 (Low 3).

Percentages: FG .377, FT .680. 3-Point Goals: 9-25, .360 (Oguchi 6-11, Hairston 2-7, Brooks 1-4, Leunen 0-3). Team Rebounds: 3. Blocked Shots: 2 (Schafer, Kent). Turnovers: 10 (Oguchi 4). Steals: 7 (Kent , Hairston 2).

Halftime–Oregon 37, Washington St. 23. A–7,936.