Cougars avoid desert sweep

TEMPE, Ariz. – First some context.

Last season, Washington State survived a one-point decision against Arizona State here when then-freshman Christian Polk missed a 3-pointer as time expired.

Saturday, the Cougars survived again, this time harassing freshman James Harden into a miss as time expired, coming away with a 56-55 Pac-10 Conference victory.

Or did they?

Most of the 10,104 in the Wells Fargo Arena would argue that Harden was fouled by WSU’s Aron Baynes as he twirled to the basket. The fans made that point vocally and with a few post-horn tossed bottles.

Harden, for one, agreed with their sentiment. When asked if he thought he was fouled, the freshman answered, “Yeah, I did.”

Now, let’s give the final play some context.

The sixth-ranked Cougars (17-2, 5-2 in Pac-10 play) trailed by as many as 11 in the first half. They then put together an 18-0 run split by halftime and led 56-48 with 3 minutes, 8 seconds remaining.

But the Sun Devils (14-5, 4-3), who have lost three consecutive games, scored on three straight possessions to cut the lead to one with 1:13 left.

Derrick Low, who spearheaded WSU’s big run and finished with a team-high 18 points, missed his last shot attempt with less than 50 seconds on the clock.

Harden, who already had scored 25 points, tried to bull past Kyle Weaver. But Weaver moved his feet and took Harden’s shoulder to the chest, drawing an offensive foul with 42.5 seconds left.

“That was a tremendous play,” WSU coach Tony Bennett said.

The Cougars ran the clock and let Taylor Rochestie create. Though the junior had 13 points, he couldn’t convert as the shot clock ran down, and ASU won the rebound battle. The Sun Devils took a timeout with 8.1 seconds remaining.

“I know he wanted it at the end, try to win the game,” Weaver said of Harden. “He brought it up and tried to make a play and I just tried to stay in front of him and tried to make him shoot a tough shot.”

It was. Harden got deep into the key going left, saw Robbie Cowgill coming over and spun back to the middle where Baynes was waiting. The ASU freshman elevated, switched hands in midair and floated a shot up with his left.

“I was really scared,” Low said. “I figured it would either go in or he would be fouled.”

Neither happened. The shot bounced off the rim.

“We got James, who’s having a terrific half, going hard to the basket, he got two feet in the paint, he was at the rim …” ASU coach Herb Sendek said, his voice trailing off.

“I’ve been on the other end of that,” Bennett said. “When a foul’s been called, and it was probably not the time to call it.”

That the game came down to the final play was something that seemed improbable with 11:48 left in the first half. The Sun Devils’ 3-2 matchup zone had stymied the Cougars, who were 2 of 11 from the floor, had turned it over five times and trailed 12-4.

So WSU changed its attack, moving the 6-foot-6 Weaver to the high post.

“I tried to move around up top, try to find gaps in the zone,” Weaver said. “Just try to do something with it when I got it. Tried to get guys the ball, find guys who were open to knock down shots, try to penetrate sometimes. Just try to get us going.”

“Their zone, it’s hard to figure out,” Bennett said. “You need to make some shots, but you’ve got to try to touch the paint, get it in the high post area. When we got Kyle in the high post … he was effective up there.”

Though he finished just 1 of 7 from the floor, Weaver had eight assists and grabbed eight rebounds, all while chasing Harden on the other end.

The Cougars still trailed 29-20 with 1:48 left in the half, but went on a 7-0 run before intermission. The last 37 seconds included a falling-down 10-footer by Rochestie, a 3-second call on ASU reserve center Eric Boateng and a last-second bucket on an inbounds play by Caleb Forrest.

“I knew it was big to close out the half,” Cowgill said. “It really started with getting stops on both ends. They did most of their scoring on transition off turnovers.

“It was a lot harder for them to go against our set defense. We started to get back, get our defense set. Then we figured out their zone and how to attack it.”

But after Baynes’ dunk with 3:08 left, the Cougars stopped scoring.

Washington St. 56, Arizona St. 55

Percentages: FG .444, FT .500. 3-Point Goals: 10-22, .455 (Low 6-11, Rochestie 2-4, Harmeling 2-5, Weaver 0-2). Team Rebounds: 4. Blocked Shots: 5 (Cowgill 2, Baynes, Weaver, Forrest). Turnovers: 12 (Baynes 3, Weaver 3, Cowgill 2, Rochestie 2, Low, Harmeling). Steals: 5 (Cowgill, Baynes, Low, Rochestie, Weaver). Technical Fouls: None.

Percentages: FG .467, FT .733. 3-Point Goals: 2-14, .143 (Abbott 2-8, McMillan 0-1, Harden 0-1, Polk 0-1, Shipp 0-3). Team Rebounds: 2. Blocked Shots: 7 (Pendergraph 4, Harden 2, Abbott). Turnovers: 8 (Harden 2, Pendergraph, Abbott, McMillan, Shipp, Boateng, Glasser). Steals: 5 (Harden 3, Abbott, Atuahene). Technical Fouls: None.

Halftime – Arizona State 29, Washington State 27. A – 10,104.