It was a tale of two halves for the WSU Cougars on Sunday, as they were simply out-muscled by the Washington Huskies.

 The Huskies used a 44-20 rebounding advantage, including a 21-3 offensive rebounding mark, to throttle the Cougs 75-65 in the two teams first match-up of the season.

 The Cougars started the game strong as they jumped out to an 11-3 lead after an electrifying dunk by Marcus Capers (cq).

 WSU was on the attack throughout the first half of play, dominating both sides of the ball en route to a 31-25 halftime advantage.

 Brock Motum (cq) led the Cougs through the first half of play, as he started 5-5 from the floor, including two key three pointers.

 However, WSU could not keep up their stellar level of play and UW used a 15-2 run during the middle of the second half to take the lead at 52-49 following an alley-oop from Abdul Gaddy (cq) to Darnell Gant (cq).

 From that point on, Terrence Ross (cq) simply took over.

 The Washington sophomore set career highs in points and rebounds against the Cougs with 30 points and 14 rebounds.

 Ross dropped 26 points, including four three pointers in the second half after being bottled up for much of the first half.

 Washington erupted for 50 points in the second half, compared to only 34 for the Cougs.

WSU was forced to employ their man defense in the second half after Ross began his hot streak. Senior Marcus Capers switched to Ross hoping to shut him down, but Ross hit a fade-away three pointer and then had an alley-oop dunk on the following play.

 Faisal Aden (cq) was the only Cougar player with more than three rebounds as he tied a career-high with seven boards. He also led the Cougs with 18 points on 6-13 shooting.

 The Cougars restricted the Huskies to 38 percent shooting from the floor, compared to WSU’s 45 percent shooting percentage. UW dominated the glass, which provided them extra possessions en route to them taking 12 more shot attempts than the Cougs.

 WSU was able to contain freshman prodigy Tony Wroten as he shot 3-14 from the floor and fouled out. He finished with 13 points and four turnovers in 36 minutes.

 Motum was key for the Cougs throughout the game, as he racked up 17 points on 7-11 shooting from the floor.

 WSU will host Stanford on Jan. 19, as they return back to Pullman for the first time since Dec. 18, 2011.