Cougs hope formula still adds up

PULLMAN – In the year and a half Washington State’s basketball program has thrust itself into the national spotlight, the Cougars have lost just 11 games.

The first 10 were followed by a win.

Home, road, unranked foe, national power, it didn’t matter. In the Tony Bennett era, a loss has been chased away by a win each time.

“Hopefully, when you drop one, there is even more of a sense of urgency, you’re even that more attentive to the details,” said the Cougars head coach Friday, the day after WSU’s 69-64 surprising home loss to unranked Cal. “Will that be a great challenge (today)? Absolutely. I would love to keep that string alive.”

The string of not losing two consecutive games will be tested by Stanford, coming off a 65-51 win over Washington behind Brook Lopez’s career-high 31 points and 13 rebounds.

Four times in the streak WSU has faced a ranked opponent in its next contest, but none ha been as highly regarded as 14th-ranked Stanford (17-3, 6-2 and in second in the Pac-10).

“They are going to guard you hard, they’re going to be physical and they’re going to run stuff with their interior guys,” Bennett said of the Cardinal, winners of their last four games. “Our plate is full every game we play in this league. I mean, we have our hands full every game. We have to play at a high level to be competitive.”

The Cardinal are led by sophomore 7-foot twin towers of Brook and Robin Lopez, though it is Brook who has taken his game to a new level, averaging 18.9 points and 8.8 rebounds in Pac-10 play. But Robin, who leads the Pac-10 in blocked shots with 44, isn’t too far behind.

“In this league you have Ryan Anderson,” said Bennett, alluding to Cal’s sophomore who put up 27 points on ninth-ranked WSU (17-3, 5-3) Thursday, “then you take a quick breath and you have the Lopez twins coming in.

“We’re going to try (to shut down Brook). That will be important. He just can’t run wild, but you just can’t focus on him. They have other good players.”

The Cardinal are playing so well that 6-8 Lawrence Hill, a first-team All-Pac-10 selection last season, is coming off the bench.

But WSU’s inside players are looking forward to the challenge of matching up with their Stanford counterparts, big bodies who like to play around the basket.

“I’ll try to stretch them out,” said Daven Harmeling, the 6-8 reserve who backs up inside and on the wing. “Obviously, you’ve got to attack them, but you can’t be stupid. You can’t try to test them every time, because 90 percent of the time they are going to throw it back.”

Harmeling will join with Aron Baynes, Robbie Cowgill and Caleb Forrest in an attempt to not only hold their own inside, but snap another one-game losing streak.

“We’ve already dropped three too many in the Pac-10,” Harmeling said. “We just have a really sour taste in our mouth after that Cal game.”