Southern Cal pulls away from competitive Cougars for 86-77 win

PULLMAN – Washington State is a better, more competitive, more fun team in Ernie Kent’s third year. But be careful with these Cougars – give them the chance and they will break your heart.

Right now the Cougars are just good enough to make you care, but closing remains elusive. For the fourth time in five games on Saturday, WSU played resolutely before ultimately falling in the final minutes, 86-77 against USC at home.

The Cougars showed the same spirit they displayed when they almost knocked off California on the road, when they nearly did it to No. 13 Oregon at home, when they scared No. 5 Arizona in Tucson, and on Wednesday when they had No. 11 UCLA sweating in the final minutes.

“We’re saying that too much, staying close with all these good teams, and then they pull away,” senior guard Ike Iroegbu said. “When it’s crunch time, you’ve got to step up. That’s the biggest thing. As a team right now, we’re not stepping up. That’s frustrating because you work so hard.”

The turn came against the Trojans with 10 minutes left in the game. Josh Hawkinson had just finished a dunk to put the Cougars up 59-57, putting an emphatic finish on a WSU comeback after it trailed by 10 points just 3 minutes into the second half.

The Trojans then went on a 15-2 run, hitting three 3-pointers and a pair of layups over six possessions.

Once again it was an athletic forward who put the Cougars away. Chimezie Metu had 29 points and made 12 of 14 shots, including six dunks against a WSU frontline that was not athletic enough to stay in front of him.

Earlier this week UCLA’s TJ Leaf had 32 points on 18 shots, while Oregon’s Chris Boucher came off the bench to score 29.

To slow down Metu, Kent turned to freshman forward Jeff Pollard, who has more quickness on defense than center Conor Clifford.

“(Pollard) can’t play Metu, but I felt like defensively we needed to get somebody in the game that can front him, move our feet a little bit better than what Conor was doing,” Kent said. “We got back into the game when Jeff was there. I thought it changed the complexion of the game completely until we took the lead and then gave up three 3s in five possessions, there was the game again.”

WSU (11-12, 4-7 Pac-12) has improved considerably since last season, and being competitive against NCAA tournament-caliber teams for most of the game has made the Cougars considerably more watchable.

But the team will lose four starters to graduation this offseason and does not use much of its bench. Fatigue is a likely culprit in these late losses – USC did not have any players on the court for more than 32 minutes while WSU had four players play 35 minutes or more.

Iroegbu, a senior, led the team in scoring for the second consecutive game with 22 points. His roommate and fellow senior Josh Hawkinson added 17 points and 16 rebounds, giving him his 52nd double-double. He is one shy of WSU’s record.

When looking ahead to next season, head coach Ernie Kent points to emerging underclassmen like Pollard, who played 16 minutes against USC, as well as a pair of redshirting players.

“We’ve got a guy in Milan Acquaah that we cannot even guard. And Arinze Chidom, we cannot guard them in practice, that are redshirting over there,” Kent said. “One due to an injury, the other due to committing late and with his parents and us, they wanted to redshirt him.

“We’ve done that. With what’s coming in the door, we need another piece or two but certainly feel like we’re reloading in the right way.”