Washington State unable to secure road sweep with 68-66 loss to Oregon State

Early in the nonconference season, the Washington State Cougars demonstrated they could win games without the best version of Isaac Bonton.

The Pac-12 Conference isn’t quite as forgiving.

Bonton, who’s emerged as one of the top players in the Pac-12 since conference play started, scoring at least 20 points on seven occasions, was held to seven points on 2-of-14 shooting and the Cougars couldn’t pull off their first road sweep in Oregon since the Tony Bennett era, losing 68-66 to Oregon State at Gill Coliseum.

After being held to single digits for just the second time in his past 35 games, Bonton, who also had eight assists, five rebounds and four turnovers, expressed remorse after the setback.

“I have to be better… I’m going to better.. This one’s on me,” Bonton tweeted.

An off night for the Pac-12’s second-leading scorer certainly played a hand in Saturday’s loss, but the Cougars were also doomed by their foul count – a point of contention among WSU fans throughout the game and a clear source of frustration for coach Kyle Smith in a postgame interview.

After setting a season high with 24 fouls in their win over Oregon Thursday, the Cougars managed to top that two days later, committing 26 fouls in Corvallis. The Beavers were whistled for 13 fouls and attempted 20 more free throws than WSU. OSU outscored WSU 23-10 at the line.

“It was surprising, just because analytically I think they’re 302nd in the country on fouls, so they foul a lot. So they must have made some good adjustments in their game plan not to foul,” Smith said. “And we usually don’t foul that much, so we’ll have to look at it. So kudos for them for really buckling down and not fouling us on those drives and offensive rebounds. They must have really well-disciplined in doing that.

“I didn’t think we were super physical. There was a lot of ticky-tacks and just some bang-bang plays that didn’t go our way.

“But those are Final Four officials, so I’m sure it wasn’t them at all. … Two of them at least have reffed in the Final Four, so we can’t make excuses for ourselves.”

Without Bonton’s usual contributions, the Cougars found offense elsewhere. DJ Rodman and Ryan Rapp, sophomores who live together in Pullman, both had career nights, combining to score 29 points. Rodman, a forward who’s made consecutive starts, finished 4 of 7 from 3-point range to score 14 points, while Rapp, a reserve guard, went 3 of 5 from deep to score 15 points.

From the 8:59 mark of the second half until there were 21 seconds remaining, Rodman and Rapp were the only Cougars to score, combining for 15 points during the stretch.

Another sophomore, Noah Williams, finished in double digits with 12 points.

“It just shows how good we can all be together in the future,” said Rodman, who set his previous career high in WSU’s win over OSU in December. “Even now. Us on the floor altogether, I feel like we have the best chance to win when all three of us are on the floor, because I feel like we have that chemistry. … We’re technically the veterans on the team, so we have to step up.”

The surge from Rodman and Rapp kept the Cougars within striking distance down the stretch. Efe Abogidi was fouled on a dunk with 11 seconds remaining, allowing the freshman center to trim OSU’s lead to 67-64.

Maurice Calloo made 1 of 2 free throws on the next possession to extend it to 68-64, but Bonton was fouled on a 3-point attempt with 3 seconds left. After making the first two free throws, Bonton purposely missed the third. The Cougars corraled the ball, but they couldn’t hoist a shot before the final buzzer sounded.

“Just a really tough battle, thought our guys played hard,” Smith said. “We did a lot of good things. We got on the offensive boards. We struggled a little bit with their matchup zone to start both halves, but we eventually broke our way through in both halves and kind of worked our way back in the lead and just couldn’t get a break there down the stretch.”

The Cougars (11-8, 3-8) return home after playing 10 of their last 12 games on the road, hosting No. 21 UCLA (13-3, 9-1) on Thursday before playing USC (14-3, 8-2) on Saturday.