Cougars close out Vandals

MOSCOW, Idaho – For 30 minutes, the Idaho Vandals gave their Pac-10 neighbors from the west all they could handle.

But college basketball games, even ones played in a half-empty arena on a snow-drift type of night, are 40 minutes long. And those last 10 minutes Sunday were all Washington State.

“I thought they just kind of wore us down in the last 10 minutes,” Idaho coach Don Verlin said after WSU scored 16 of the games final 19 points en route to a 55-41 win over Idaho before 1,618 in the Cowan Spectrum.

It’s little wonder.

The Vandals (6-6) had finished a win over Texas Southern about 24 hours before the 264th renewal of the West’s longest-running continuous rivalry started.

WSU (8-3), in contrast, last played a week ago.

“(Playing Saturday) took its wear on us a little bit,” Idaho guard Mac Hopson said. “I felt it a little bit, you know, to be honest. … I think it was hard on our legs. But it’s not an excuse for that. We’ve got to buckle down and do our jobs.”

Add in the physical nature of the game – “The refs let us play today, which was good,” said the Cougars’ Aron Baynes – and the Vandals simply wore out.

Baynes played a huge part in that.

The 6-foot-10, 250-pound senior bumped and battled all night with UI’s 6-10, 235-pound Marvin Jefferson, with the two combining for just five fouls in the loosely called contest, the three on Jefferson all whistled in a 1-minute stretch near the end.

When the dust cleared, Baynes had a season-high 18 points. He took a career-high 15 shots, making nine. It was all part of WSU’s design.

“The seniors have been challenged by coach,” Baynes said of his offensive output. “We have to be (better) leaders the rest of the year than we have been out there. That’s one of the keys for myself, knowing I can be more of a presence down there.

“If I make a couple plays it will open things up for the rest of the guys.”

“They made some great adjustments in the second half,” Verlin said. “They came out and went to Aron Baynes and basically we couldn’t get him stopped in the second half and that was the difference in the game.”

As was the all-around play of WSU point guard Taylor Rochestie.

Matched up against former Cougar Hopson – the two battled for playing time two years ago, with Rochestie finally winning a starting spot – Rochestie played all 40 minutes, scored 11 points, had five assists and a lone turnover. He also hit 4 of his 6 shots inside the arc, though his long-range struggles continued, as he was 1 of 5 from outside.

More importantly Rochestie didn’t allow Hopson, averaging a team-high 16.9 points a game, to get off in transition – the Vandals didn’t have a fast-break bucket – or in the half-court.

“He really stepped up to the plate defensively and took care of business there,” said Baynes, whose nine rebounds helped WSU to a 37-28 edge, 20-9 in the second half. “That allowed the rest of the team to make plays on the glass. It was phenomenal seeing Taylor out there playing that kind of ‘D.’ ”

Hopson finished with a full stat line – 10 points, six rebounds, six assists and zero turnovers – but never got to the rim against Rochestie and the Cougars’ help defense.