Washington State’s shooting woes persist in blowout loss to No. 13 UCLA

Washington State had its worst shooting performance of the season and the Cougars sustained their most lopsided loss of the year.

WSU hit a season-low 28.3% of its field-goal attempts in a 76-56 Pac-12 clunker against No. 13 UCLA on Thursday night at Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles.

“We haven’t shot the ball well for a while here,” coach Kyle Smith said.

The Cougars, who have dropped their last four games, matched a season low in shooting percentage last weekend against Arizona State, then set a new low of 30.1% Monday at Oregon.

“We’re not going to beat anyone shooting the way we’re shooting,” Smith added. “We got some good looks, to be honest. We just gotta make ‘em. I think it’s a little mental right now.”

WSU (14-11, 7-7) closed to within four points early in the second half before a 15-1 surge over three minutes from the Bruins (18-5, 10-4), who knocked down seven consecutive shot attempts during the game-sealing run.

Extended cold spells have been all too familiar this season for the Cougars, but they had managed to avoid blowout losses by holding opposing offenses in check and competing on the boards – until they ran into the Bruin buzz saw.

UCLA outrebounded WSU 41-26 and went 28 of 54 (51.9%) from the floor, including 10 of 20 from 3-point range. WSU finished 15 of 53 and 7 of 30 (23.3%) from beyond the arc.

“That was a really well-played game,” Smith said of the Bruins, who had lost three of four before Thursday. “They came out with a purpose.

“We had a hard time defending them and they beat us on the glass.”

WSU’s backcourt defense suffered a big blow in pregame, when guard TJ Bamba – the Cougars’ most effective perimeter defender – was ruled out with an unspecified injury. UCLA played without starting point guard Tyger Campbell, who was sidelined because of a violation of team rules.

Campbell’s replacement, the 6-foot-5 Jaylen Clark, capitalized on a mismatch and totaled 18 points (7 of 11), 11 rebounds, five assists and four steals. Star guard Johnny Juzang led all players with 19 points (6 of 9).

“They made it hard on us to get good looks,” Smith said of the the Bruins’ guards. “We didn’t have a lot of height. We had some guys with blank stares. You gotta be able to bring energy at any time.”

Guard Tyrell Roberts paced WSU with 14 points on 5 of 14. Guard Noah Williams and forward Andrej Jakimovski tacked on 11 points apiece. Senior point guard Michael Flowers, the team’s leading scorer, was limited to three points on 1 of 8.

WSU’s frontcourt tandem of Mouhamed Gueye and Efe Abogidi was held to three points on 1 of 10 and five rebounds.

“Our bigs have to do a better job putting pressure on the rim and drawing fouls,” Smith said.

WSU launched errant 3-pointers and was shooting 9% from the floor after seven minutes. The Cougars trailed by 13 midway through the half, but woke up and didn’t allow UCLA to separate by an insurmountable margin. The treys started to fall and WSU sliced into the deficit with a 5 of 5 stretch from the field late in the half.

The Cougars outscored the Bruins 22-19 over the final 12 minutes of the period, taking advantage of nine UCLA turnovers and a couple of three-minute scoring droughts. Despite a major shooting disparity between the opponents – 59% for UCLA against 32% for WSU – the Bruins led by only 10 at halftime.

No. 17 USC awaits the Cougars for a 4:30 p.m. tip on Sunday.