The inclement weather could not slow down WSU’s Faisal Aden.

 The senior scored a career-high 33 points in the Cougars’ (10, 2-4) 81-69 victory against conference-leading Stanford (15-4, 5-2). Aden simply could not be stopped in the second half, as 23 of his points came after the break.

 Aden said it was really just another day at the office for him.

 “I make a lot of tough shots, I can make pretty much any shot,” Aden said. “I can fade away, I can shoot floaters, I can get in the lane. I was really just reading my defender, and that’s all it was.”

 Head Coach Ken Bone said he was impressed with what he saw from Aden tonight.

 “That’s what we saw when we recruited him, a kid that can really light it up and score,” Bone said. “He didn’t hit any threes tonight, but he scored a lot inside the arc and made all 13 of his free throws. He was outstanding on the offensive end.”

 The Cougs started the game 5-5 from the floor, including one three pointer as they jumped out to a 14-10 lead early on.

 WSU couldn’t maintain the hot start, as Stanford engineered an 11-3 run to grab the lead.

 Stanford’s offense was moving through big man Josh Owens for a majority of the half, as he started the game 5-5 with ten points and six rebounds in the first half.

 Both teams shot poorly from the field in the first half, as WSU shot 34.6 percent due in part to abysmal three point shooting (1-9). Stanford shot 44.8 percent from the field, including 3-14 from three-point range.

 Stanford opened up the second half on an 8-0 run to jump out to a 37-27 lead. The Cardinal opened the half by netting their first three attempts from the perimeter.

 It seemed as if WSU was not ready to start the half, until Brock Motum scored seven straight points to cut the Stanford lead to eight.

 Owens answered back for Stanford as he continued his hot start to the game, by scoring seven straight Cardinal points to keep the Cougs from closing the margin.

 The senior led the Cardinal with 19 points on 100 percent shooting to go along with seven rebounds. Nonetheless, Owens was virtually non-existent down the stretch, scoring no points from the nine-minute mark on.

 Bone said WSU was lucky that Owens didn’t get more touches in the second half.

 “Owens was just such a beast down low, obviously we couldn’t stop him,” Bone said. “He was eight for eight from the field, we were fortunate there he didn’t get more looks.”

 Beasley coliseum began to erupt as the Cougs engineered a 17-5 run to tie the game at 51 following a Faisal Aden bucket with a little over 10 minutes remaining.

 After taking out Motum with a 55-53 lead, the Cougs jumped out to their largest lead of the night after back-to-back three pointers from Davonte Lacy and Reggie Moore.

 Moore said he knew the shot was falling as soon as it left his hand.

 “I think we were on a little break and they kind of closed in on Faisal, I think two guys took Faisal and he hit me for the wide open shot so I just took it and made it,” Moore said. “Faisal passed it to me and he was like ‘shoot it,’ so I shot it and just started running back because I knew it was going in.”

 Stanford simply could not put the ball in the basket in the second half, for over eight minutes of play, the Cardinal did not make a field goal.

 The Cougs extended their lead to 71-63 following a string of ten straight points by Aden. The junior seemingly could do no wrong as he made difficult jumpers on consecutive possessions.

 Aden finished the game with a career-high 33 points. He also led the Cougs in rebounding as hauled in six rebounds. Aden shot lights-out, going 10-17 from the floor and 13-13 from the charity stripe.

 “I knew I was hot,” Aden said, “I was confident coming into the game, I was really just playing ball.”

 The Cougars used critical free throw shooting to finish off the Cardinal by a score of 81-69. As a team, WSU shot 25-27 from the free throw line.

Bone said he was pleased with the team’s performance, especially in the second half.

 “Really proud of our guys,” Bone said. “I thought our guys stepped out on the floor tonight and competed pretty hard and then when push came to shove in that last fifteen minutes, I thought we really competed.”

 WSU will have a short turnaround before they host California on Saturday.