Myles Rice scores career-high 35 points to lead Washington State past Stanford 89-75
STANFORD, Calif. – When Isaac Jones gets going, when he realizes his matchup can’t stop him, he smiles widely. It’s like a certain inevitability hangs in the air. Washington State’s best forward wants to get to the basket, and the defense better send help.
WSU topped Stanford 89-75 Thursday night because Jones and the Cougars unleashed some of their best basketball before the Cardinal realized they needed to send reinforcements. Jones scored 24 points. Myles Rice poured in a career-high 35. The visitors took a double-digit lead into halftime and never had much trouble the rest of the way.
“We came out with a really good purpose, good focus,” WSU coach Kyle Smith said. “We wanted to make sure we didn’t give up too many 3s to those guys because they still shot it really well. We were able to turn them over a little bit, and Myles got in the paint all night and really put a lot of pressure on them.”
It may come off extra encouraging for the Cougars because in their best moments, in stretches like their 13-0 run in the first half, they got most anything they wanted – on both ends of the floor.
They totaled 58 points in the paint. They turned 17 turnovers into 19 points, making the Cardinal pay for silly mistakes.
It’s the third win – and fourth in five tries – for WSU, which finishes this road trip with a matchup against struggling Cal on Saturday. For the Cougs, who have been in the Bay Area since Tuesday to beat the snow headed to the area, it’s another chance to add to this winning streak and, perhaps more important, their NCAA Tournament resume.
Washington State (13-5, 4-3 Pac-12), which shot an efficient 54% for the game, did it in part by sticking with a new starting lineup. The Cougars’ starting five – Rice, Jaylen Wells, Andrej Jakimovski, Jones and Oscar Cluff – has started three straight games. They have won each.
For coach Kyle Smith and the Cougs, it reinforces what they were sensing after two games with that lineup: It provides the perfect mix of space and muscle. Cluff logged 12 points and 14 rebounds, and Jones has scored 20-plus points in three straight games. With the floor spacing provided by Rice, Wells and Jakimovski, those guys are free to do their thing inside – and the guards can do theirs on the outside.
On Thursday, Rice benefited the most. It wasn’t just that he had a career high in points. It was how he got there. He kicked his speed into an extra gear, which allowed him to glide to the basket for layups both easy and acrobatic. He used his handle to create for himself and knock down jumpers. And he leveraged the threat of his shot to perfection, getting defenders up in the air and sliding by them into the lane.
“It was just my night,” Rice said. “I feel like I found my spots pretty well, but not forcing it at the same time. I got in a little groove. Like I said before the last game, I just trust in my craft and my work. The shots went in tonight and we came out with a dub. That’s all I’m happy about.”
But perhaps more important to WSU’s ascension was the way Rice distributed the ball. He handed out eight assists, which marked his fourth straight game logging five or more. He’s finding a rhythm passing the ball. He seems to be realizing that he doesn’t always have to drive to score. He can drive to pass, and the more defenses respect his dribble-drive, the more susceptible they are to breakdowns.
It’s all coming together for Rice, in other words, which may be the best news of all for the Cougs. Toss in his defense – he swiped X steals in Thursday’s win – and WSU has one of the single best players in the Pac-12, regardless of age or experience.
The Cougs, who led by as many as 19, also staved off a late Cardinal push. Down 18 in the second half, Stanford scored eight straight. Except that’s when Jones finished an and-one. Wells followed a Maxime Raynaud dunk with a layup off a Rice drive. Then Rice matched a Raynaud triple with one of his own.
When the Cardinal picked up their scoring, the Cougs did the same. In short, that’s how they secured this win, particularly down the stretch. With 2:30 to play, Stanford trimmed WSU’s lead to 9. On their next possession, the Cougs sprung Rice free on a cut to the basket, and he capitalized to push the lead back to double figures.
“Thank goodness,” Smith laughed. “We handled the press well. That was good.”
It’s also worth noting the way this win could impact Washington State’s resume come March. Stanford entered this game ranked No. 99 in the NCAA’s NET rankings, which determine quality of wins by dividing them into quadrants. For WSU, this will qualify as a Quad 2 win. The Cougs just earned a Quad 1 last weekend by dethroning then-No. 8 Arizona.
So this is back-to-back quality wins for Washington State, which has not reached the NCAA Tournament since 2008, still one of the country’s longest droughts. They still have work to do. These kinds of wins will go a long way, though.