WSU leads 29-24 at the half

COUGARS

If the score is familiar, how it got to be that way certainly isn’t. Washington State held Oregon State to 24 first-half points on 26 percent shooting playing mainly, now sit down before you read this, 2-3 zone. Yes, zone. The Cougars probably played more minutes of zone in the first half (15:34) than they did during the entire Tony Bennett era. The main reason? It was working. The Beavers aren’t what you would call deadeye long range shooters, hitting 4 of 14 beyond the arc, which is about 10 percentage points below their usual season average. Besides, by zoning, it takes away a lot of the cuts they like to make in their offense. … On the other end, WSU attacked OSU’s 1-3-1 zone so well the Beavers went entirely with their 2-3 alignment the final 6 minutes of the half. … Finally, once again the WSU bench was contributing in a big way, with James Watson the main force, running the court for five points. … We’ll be back when we can after the game.