The Cougars came out with fire and put a scare into the No. 13 Utah Utes, but the valiant effort wasn’t enough as they fell 67-59.

WSU (12-17, 6-11 in Pac-12) had the lead for more than 20 minutes of the game but couldn’t hold on late against the Utes (23-6, 13-4). Pivotal free throw misses when the Cougars led by as many as eight points contributed to their downfall.

Senior center Jordan Railey scored 12 points for the Cougars while senior guard DaVonté Lacy added 16 points of his own. Sophomore forward Josh Hawkinson scored 11 points and grabbed nine rebounds in the game. Head Coach Ernie Kent said he believes the team has been improving over the last three games.

“I thought we had just a terrific three game stretch because we’ve gotten better, particularly defensively,” Kent said. “We had an excellent game plan and when we executed, I thought we were really good tonight.”

The first half began with both teams struggling to get anything going on the offensive side of the ball. The game had a score of just 11-4 with 11:55 left in the first half. Three Cougars were responsible for the scoring, with Railey and Hawkinson leading the way with four points each.

The Utes couldn’t hit anything from the offensive end until around the 10 minute mark in the half. WSU came out with good defense, forcing the Utes into several turnovers early in the game. The Cougars were unable to take advantage of the Utes’ inability to score and Utah took the lead for the first time at the10 minute mark 13-12.

For the remainder of the half, it became a back and forth battle between the two teams. Railey led the way for the Cougars in the first half as it became apparent they were going to use their big men to have success against Utah. Railey scored 12 points and the Cougars and Utes were knotted at 23 apiece at the end of the half. Railey said the teams’ shooters helped give him an opportunity down low.

“I don’t think anything was feeling different,” Railey said. “They just couldn’t help off of our great shooters, they were sticking with them so it pretty much gave me an open lane to play one-on-one in the post, wasn’t feeling any different than any other game, it was just they weren’t helping off the guards so it left everything open for me.”

Senior guard Delon Wright led the Utes with nine points while also grabbing three rebounds and dishing out two assists in the first half. Outside of Railey, the Cougars couldn’t get anyone else going, as the next closest player in scoring was Hawkinson with four points. Lacy finished the half with just two points.

The Cougars came out hot to start the second half, hitting three of their first four three-point attempts, giving them a 32-31 lead heading into the first media timeout. WSU continued its hot shooting, increasing the lead to 48-41 with 8:54 to play. However, the Utes proved why they’re the 13th best team in the nation as they stormed back to tie the game at 48 with six minutes left.

The strong effort by the Cougars proved it wasn’t enough to take down the No. 13 team in the nation. Utah pulled away from the Cougars after taking a 53-50 lead with 4:49 left in the game and never looked back, en route to victory.

Lacy said the team has to put this game in the past to prevent a let down on senior night against Colorado.

“We gotta have a different mindset than we had down there,” Lacy said. “We gotta learn from this but don’t feel too bad about it, learn from it and move on to the next one, obviously it sucks right now but what can you do about it? All you can do right now is learn from it and move on to the next and I think that’s what we need to do as a group, as a unit and a team.”

The atmosphere of the building wasn’t what you’d expect when playing the 13th team in the nation. Kent believes the senior class deserves to be sent out the right way.

“I thought the energy in the building was not where I thought it was going to be with the 13th ranked team (Utah) coming in here and the seniors on their two last games,” Kent said. “I thought they deserved a lot better with what they’ve done, how hard they’ve played, particularly this year. I hope people come out and pay tribute to those guys (Railey, Lacy and Kernich-Drew) the right way on Saturday.”

The students and community will get an opportunity to say goodbye to the senior class Saturday at 3:30 p.m. when they host the Colorado Buffaloes for senior day. The game can be seen on the Pac-12 Networks.