No. 18 WSU men’s basketball (23-8, 14-6 Pac-12) lost to Washington (15-15, 10-9 Pac-12), overwhelmed by a Husky team that surged at just the right moments.

9,331 were in attendance, the largest college basketball crowd in the state of Washington this year and the most since the Klay Thompson jersey retirement in 2020.

The Huskies opened the scoring with a Wilhelm Breidenbach layup, and the Cougs had their first points soon after when Myles Rice delivered the ball perfectly to a cutting Jakimovski.

Jaylen Wells quickly followed it with a floater, and Breidenbach answered with another layup. Rueben Chinyelu was pulled as scheduled, about three minutes into the game, but he was replaced by freshman Isaiah Watts rather than the usual early Oscar Cluff sub.

At the first media timeout, the Huskies led by a score of 6-4. A few minutes later, it was 11-4. 

The Cougs were off to another slow start, not helped by two offensive fouls and 18.2% shooting from the field.

Oscar Cluff managed to arrest the slide with a layup, but the Cougar defense had no answer for the Huskies shooting. 

Cluff quickly counteracted his own production with an unforced shot clock violation just a few plays later, and Washington seemingly had all the momentum.

That momentum shifted when the Cougs went on an 8-0 run, which included a Cluff midrange jumper and two Watts steals that led to transition dunks for him.

Watts was the story of the game early, with his defense leading to offense for himself and others. He had seven points early, and had grabbed key rebounds and steals to carry the otherwise struggling Cougs out of their cold start.

The revitalized Cougars continued to hold the lead for much of the half but still could not shoot any better, their percentages only going down over the half. 

After a couple of down weeks, Isaac Jones was back to form. He drew multiple fouls and skied for some unlikely rebounds, powering an interior system that had been without him for too long.

The Cougar lead got into double-digits for a stretch, but the Huskies powered back into it. A 12-0 run capped by a Moses Wood 3-pointer and a Sahvir Wheeler layup in the final minute gave UW the lead as the period expired.

At halftime the score was 30-32. The Cougs were shooting 8% from 3-point range, missing 11 and making only one, and they were shooting only 36% overall. UW was shooting 33% from 3-point range and 48% from the field. 

Those shooting splits were the difference maker. WSU had the edge in rebounding and blocks; the teams were tied in both steals and turnovers.

Jones led the Cougars with nine points and six rebounds, followed by Watts who was still at the seven point, two steal totals he achieved early in the match.

It was going to take better than that to beat the Huskies, who were relying in an extremely effective zone and numerous Cougar defensive miscues to stop and score on the Cougs.

Cluff tied it back up with a putback off a Jakimovski miss. UW’s Keion Brooks Jr. was called for a push-off and the Cougs took advantage, Jones making a pull-up jumper to give the lead back to the home squad.

One-point leads were traded for a few minutes before a Wells three put the Cougs ahead by two points. The Huskies tied it back up, but Kymany Houinsou took a perpendicular cut up to the rim for two and the foul. 

He missed the free throw, but the margin still grew to four a moment later when a Cluff block led to a Watts midrange stepback. The Huskies took the lead again on a Brooks 3-pointer, but Watts traded in one of his own to put the lead back at two.

UW stopped playing nice right around that point. A 12-4 run gave them an eight point lead. The Cougs managed to get it within three for a moment, but it was fleeting.

The final game of the regular season ended with a score of 74-68, the Cougars falling in the final Apple Cup game as it is currently known.

It was all about shooting in this loss. The Cougs had their worst night of the season from outside, making only 16.7% of their 3-pointers. They did not do better at the free throw line, shooting 47.1% from there.

While the final score was not neck-and-neck, it was not a blowout. That six-point margin would be made up if the Cougs had simply made a frigid 25% of their 3-pointers.

But, they did not. Isaac Jones led the team with 20 points, but he missed six free throws, the same as the ending margin. Watts had 15 points and those electric steals, proving that his recent success has not just been a fluke.

Rice, Wells and Jakimovski were all held below ten points. Jakimovski scored only two, a nagging shoulder injury causing him to miss the rest of his eight shots after making his first attempt to start the scoring.

Obviously, this is now how the team can play in the Pac-12 and NCAA tournaments. Shooting variability is dangerous, and the Cougs have avoided falling to it for most of the year. It will all be single elimination from here on out, and a night like this makes it almost impossible to come out on top.

A win would have meant winning the Pac-12 regular season, but that is behind the Cougs now. Winning the regular season would be a big deal, but the Pac-12 tournament is a chance for an even bigger deal.

WSU has never won a Pac-12 men’s basketball championship. The women’s team won their first last year, and now in the final year of the conference the Cougs have the chance to do it too.

By finishing second in the conference, WSU earned a bye. That means that the next team to face the Cougs is whoever wins between Stanford and Cal in the first round of the Pac-12 Tournament Wednesday night. WSU beat both of those teams this season, although they dropped a shocking game against Cal on Jan. 20.

The second round game will tip-off 6 p.m Thursday in Las Vegas. Fans can watch on Pac-12 Network.