Cougars cruise

PULLMAN – Five Washington State players were asked after Saturday’s basketball game if they could have expected to beat Washington by such a wide margin.

For more than a second, the question hung in the air unanswered. Then, all five burst into an easy laugh.

It was that kind of day for the Cougars.

WSU didn’t just defeat its archrival – it dominated Washington for 40 minutes, winning 75-47. WSU didn’t win in front of a sellout crowd – it did so in front of an overflow crowd of 11,618, the largest at Beasley Coliseum in nearly 24 years.

In the process of beating up on the Huskies, the Cougars all but guaranteed that a good number of those fans are going to keep coming back for more.

“It was good, that’s all I can say. It was really good,” WSU coach Tony Bennett said. “It was a well-balanced game. We got a lift from a lot of people.”

The final score could well remain in the record books for some time, too. WSU hadn’t won a Pac-10 game by that big a margin since 1994. Washington hadn’t lost a game by so many points since 2003, and it hadn’t scored so few points in a game since 2001. And it was the Cougars’ largest margin of victory in the 261 games of the series.

The Cougars (16-3, 5-2) will spend another week within easy reach of the top of the conference. More surprising, they’re well clear of teams such as Arizona and UW (11-7, 1-6), which were widely assumed to be the top threats to UCLA in the Pac-10.

WSU caught a break before the game started. Spencer Hawes, Washington’s star freshman and top scorer, rolled an ankle in practice the day before and never took off his warm-ups while watching the game from the bench.

Without him on the floor, the Huskies looked perplexed against an airtight Cougars defense. For nearly nine minutes in the first half, UW failed to score. In that time, WSU turned a 17-12 lead into a 31-12 blowout.

Without Hawes, Washington shot 28.3 percent from the field and three starters went scoreless, including Hawes’ replacement, Artem Wallace.

“He’s a huge presence when he’s in the game. He helps us a lot,” Washington forward Jon Brockman said of Hawes.

Brockman, with 13 points, was just about the only Husky who caused any difficulty for WSU.

“They work hard,” he said of WSU. “They’re efficient on offense. They make good stops on defense. And bottom line, they just compete. They compete in every part of the game.”

Even a late first-half surge for the Huskies made little difference. WSU opened the second half, as has been its custom this season, with a 15-4 run and buried Washington, stirring the crowd into a frenzy and turning the final minutes into a workout opportunity for the walk-ons at the end of the Cougars bench.

WSU led by as many as 35.

“What we do is just possession by possession,” forward Robbie Cowgill said. “I don’t know if you really get a feel for the way the whole game is going until you step back and look at the score, look at the whole run. That’s when it kind of hit me. I came out and looked at the scoreboard and was like, ‘Whoa.’ “

In addition to the stingy defense, WSU’s offense had few problems. Derrick Low pulled out of a recent shooting slump, hitting five 3-pointers on the way to a game-high 20 points. Kyle Weaver missed only once on eight shots and had 17 points, continuing his recent run of superb play.

Even Taylor Rochestie, a role player, got into the action, knocking down all four of his attempts and scoring nine points. The Cougars shot 53.6 percent from the field, and in the second half it seemed they could do no wrong as the margin steadily increased.

Most impressive, WSU seemed to play with more energy for the entire game, something players from both team acknowledged after the game.

“Our program is built on intangibles,” Bennett said. “To us, it’s diving on the floor for the loose ball, making the extra pass, getting back on D.

“We need to win that battle to have a chance.”

In owning that battle, the Cougars got the chance to embarrass their archrival.

“I guess it’s shocking,” Weaver said.

Notes

Chris Matthews was not available to play for the Cougars because of a sprained ankle suffered Thursday. … Senior guard Antonio Chavers, however, got academic clearance Friday night after being ineligible for the entire season and played 2 minutes at game’s end.

WSU 75, Washington 47

Percentages: FG .283, FT .733. 3-Point Goals: 6-18, .333 (Appleby 3-9, Pondexter 2-3, Dentmon 1-1, Gasser 0-2, Nelson 0-3). Team Rebounds: 7. Blocked Shots: 0. Turnovers: 12 (Pondexter 2, Nelson 2, Wallace 2). Steals: 1 (Appleby). Technical Fouls: None.

Percentages: FG .536, FT .727. 3-Point Goals: 7-14, .500 (Low 5-7, Rochestie 1-1, Harmeling 1-2, Clark 0-1, Weaver 0-1, Hopson 0-1, Koprivica 0-1). Team Rebounds: 6. Blocked Shots: 7 (Clark 3). Turnovers: 6 (Weaver 2, Cowgill 2). Steals: 4 (Weaver 2). Technical Fouls: None.

Halftime–Washington State 34, Washington 23. A–11,618.