Men’s basketball falls to Huskies again
WSU went scoreless for more than five minutes twice in game
UW junior forward Noah Dickerson attempts to steal the ball from WSU forward Drick Bernstine on Sunday.
January 29, 2018
WSU men’s basketball fell to in-state rival University of Washington in Montlake by a score of 80-62 Sunday. The Cougars will be forced to deal with losing to the Huskies in two meetings this season.
The two teams seemed to trade identities. WSU (9-11,1-7), the first-ranked three-point shooting team in the Pac-12, only hit six threes and struggled mightily from beyond the arc all night, shooting 25 percent. Meanwhile the Huskies (15-6, 5-3), who are ranked 10th in the Pac-12 in three-point shooting, nailed 11 threes to a tune of 44 percent.
The Cougars produced a smooth start early in the first half, but the UW three-point barrage would prove to be too much.
WSU couldn’t seem to help themselves later in the first half either. Immediately after the Cougars took their first lead of the game, the offense went cold. Five minutes went by before WSU would find another bucket. The Cougs were outscored 22-5 in the last 10 minutes of the first half, which left them trailing 45-30 at halftime.
The second half brought life to the Cougars with a 12-2 run in the first two minutes, bringing their deficit back to single digits. Senior forward Drick Bernstine led the run with seven of the 12 points. But much like the first half, when the offense was firing on all cylinders, it eventually blew a gasket, and the Cougars would go six minutes without scoring a point.
The deficit that had once been just five points with 16 minutes remaining found itself back to 15 at around the 10-minute mark.
UW junior guard Matisse Thybulle was also able to fend off any comeback from the Cougars. He single-handedly took over the scoring for UW in the first eight minutes of the second half, only receiving help from freshman guard Jaylen Nowell, who made two points during the span.
With sophomore point guard Malachi Flynn and junior forward Robert Franks shooting a combined 9-29 from the field, WSU simply could not find the offensive firepower to compete with UW.
WSU returns to Pullman 7 p.m. Wednesday to face No. 11 University of Arizona at Beasley Coliseum.
