WSU men’s basketball (13-6, 4-4 Pac-12) played two games across the Bay Area last week. They won their first against Stanford and dropped a heartbreaker in the second to Cal.
First up was Stanford (10-8, 5-3 Pac-12), who were fresh off a win over Utah. The Cougs took it by a final score of 89-75, led by a career game from Myles Rice.
The Cougs took a 42-29 lead in the first half, led by an efficient barrage from Rice and Isaac Jones. Rice finished the half with 16 points, while Jones had 15. The Cougar duo shot a combined 70% from the field in the half.
Stanford had 12 turnovers in the first half, allowing for a 13-0 run by the Cougs. Rice had four steals and five assists, well on his way to a career game already. The Cougar defense was wreaking havoc, and Stanford did not seem to stand a chance.
The second half went much the same. The Cougs held the lead, and it even grew as big as 19 with 14:49 left to play. Stanford stepped it up as the second half drew to a close, but could not manage to get the lead lower than nine points.
Oscar Cluff had 10 points in the second half, making all of his four shots, and he grabbed nine rebounds. He finished with a 14-point, 12-rebound double-double, managing almost a full double-double in the second half alone.
Jones had nine in the second half, taking him up to 24 for the game. He had five rebounds and five assists for the game. Jaylen Wells had 13 points and grabbed four rebounds. He also added a block, which helped the Cougars reach their total of five.
All of those players did great, but the star of the show was still Rice. He hit three more threes, which put him one short of his career high with five. His 19 in the second half brought him to 35 points, passing Isaac Fontaine for the WSU Freshman scoring record.
After easily beating Stanford, the Cougs made their way to Berkeley to face Cal.
Cal has not had a great season, and with the Cougs on a roll, this game seemed trivial. The Golden Bears had other thoughts. They beat the Cougars in overtime by a score of 81-75.
WSU played sloppy in this game. More importantly, though, Cal played great.
Jaylon Tyson poured in 30 points for the Bears, his second time doing that in the last two weeks. He led them to early success, and at halftime, the Cal lead was seven.
The second half was more of a game, as WSU managed to fight back into it and even take the lead after tying it with a 9-0 run during the first eight minutes of the half. The Cougar lead got as big as seven points with just four minutes left.
The collapse happened in the last two minutes, as Cal went on a 10-0 run of their own to take the lead. The last two points of that run came on two made free throws, followed immediately by a WSU timeout.
With only four seconds remaining, down three points, there was only one option for the Cougs: hit a three.
The ball was inbounded to Rice, but a perfect contest came immediately from Cal guard Jalen Cone. A quick fake got Cone in the air, and with his feet still set Rice snaked around the defender and took his real shot.
The net whipped exactly as the buzzer sounded, and the Cougs were headed to overtime.
If a win had been the eventual result, this would be remembered as one of Rice’s greatest moments in an incredible freshman season. Unfortunately, the Bears were not going to allow it to happen.
A lightning-fast 6-0 run to open the extra period had the Cougs scrambling, and they never managed to receiver. After that run, the Cougs matched all of Cal’s points, finishing overtime with 8 to the Golden Bears 14.
No Coug had an especially good game. Leading in scoring was Andrej Jakimovski with 20, followed by Rice with 16. While both made some big shots, neither were particularly efficient in the game as a whole.
Jones had a lower-than-expected 13 points, and while he had seven rebounds and two blocks he also committed four turnovers, leading the game. Cal, on the other hand, had four turnovers total to the Cougs 10.
Above all else, the Cougars looked tired in this game. Travel out of Pullman was not easy and the Cougs have had a series of hard games, and it seemed to have been wearing on them.
Many of those turnovers were unforced concentration mistakes, and the Cougs were outrebounded by Cal as well. While they were slightly more efficient than the Golden Bears, the Bears took twelve more shots due to those issues.
It is hard to win with that kind of differential.
Upsets happen, and one of the biggest indicators of where a team is at is how they respond to them. The Cougs have that chance now, with familiar opponents coming to town.
Utah blew the Cougs out last time they played back Dec. 29, outscoring the Cougs by only two in the first half but by 20 in the second half.
That WSU team was not as cohesive as this one, but Utah is still a very formidable opponent. The Cougs will have to bring their all if they are to succeed.
That game tips off 7 p.m. Wednesday in Beasley Coliseum. Fans can watch on the Pac-12 Network.
