Fowl play in Eugene

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Redshirt junior guard Dexter Kernich-Drew has the ball stripped by Oregon redshirt junior guard Joseph Young during a drive into the paint in the second half. The Oregon Ducks play the Washington St. Cougars at Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene, Ore., on Feb. 23.

Washington State’s loss to the Ducks last night was a tale of two halves. WSU men’s basketball played with confidence in the first half, a confidence which was then snatched away in the second as the Cougars fell to Oregon by a score of 67-53.

In the opening 20 minutes, WSU (9-18, 2-13) slowed the game down and controlled the tempo, which prevented the Ducks (18-8, 6-8) from hitting their first field goal until the game clock reached 12:01. WSU led the entire half thanks to the help of redshirt senior forward D.J. Shelton who contributed 12 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Junior guard DaVonte Lacy also scored nine points, helping the Cougars take a 31-24 lead at the halfway mark.

When the referee blew the whistle to start the second half, the Oregon Ducks put more pressure on the WSU ball handlers to result in a turnover and a dunk by senior Mike Moser. This was a sign of the things to come for the 6 foot 8 forward.

The Ducks opened up the half by going on an 11-3 run. Moser scored all eleven of the Ducks opening points in the second half.

“That was not the way you wanted to start any half,” WSU men’s basketball Head Coach Ken Bone said after the loss.

The Cougars turned the ball over 17 times in the game due to Oregon’s defensive press. The Ducks scored 24 points off of the Washington State miscues.

“The turnovers are what hurt us more than anything else tonight,” Bone said. “They got a lot of the turnovers and pushed it, and that’s what they do very well, push it transition. They were able to convert quite a few of those.”

WSU trailed the Ducks by four points with just 6:47 left to play in the game; however, the Ducks drowned the Cougars in the end by going on a 13-0 run in the next four minutes. At that point, the game was out of reach for the Cougars, resulting in their 13th conference loss of the season.

Lacy led the team in scoring with 19 points and Shelton finished with a double-double, grabbing ten boards and scoring 14 points.

WSU will head to Seattle this Friday to take on the Washington Huskies (15-13, 7-8) at 7:30 p.m.