Arizona leads 32-31 at half

COUGARS

Quick halftime post. When Washington State plays offense like it did early, it’s tough. The ball was going through Casto inside and Arizona finally had to respect it – after he had eight points in 8 minutes. But he didn’t get many touches after that and WSU started to become that bounce-it team that isn’t all that tough to defend. The Cougars scored nine points in the final 8 minutes of the half. WSU, shooting 70 percent for the first 9 minutes, finished the half at 48 percent. Klay Thompson couldn’t find the range, hitting an early 3 then getting a fastbreak basket and a fumbling layup near the buzzer for his seven points. … Meanwhile, Arizona stopped going through Derrick Williams on offense and it opened things up. By moving Williams to the short corner, it flattened out the bottom line of WSU’s zone. Quick reversals and better looks outside. Plus, Williams was hard to box out from there and ended up with seven offensive rebounds. Almost half of those came on one possession in the final 3 minutes, when WSU had switched to man and Williams overpowered Casto at the rim but couldn’t finish and was finally fouled. … Casto leads WSU with nine points and four blocks but doesn’t have a board. Williams has 11 to go with his team-high nine points. … We’ll be back about 10:45 with another post. Until then …