A huge scoring performance by Washington’s only senior in his final game at Hec Ed Pavilion prevented the WSU men’s basketball team from stealing a win in Seattle Wednesday night.

UW redshirt senior guard Andrew Andrews scored a career-high 47 points which tied for the most points scored in a Division-I basketball game this season. Andrews’ big game helped the Huskies (17-13, 9-9 in Pac-12) to a 99-91 win over the Cougars (9-21, 1-17 in Pac-12) in the last regular season game of the 2016 season.

“He’s a terrific player,” WSU Head Coach Ernie Kent said. “When Nigel (Williams) Goss left here, I felt like it gave him (the) green light that this was his team and what a fabulous career he’s had, particularly this last year, he’s my vote for player of the year (in the Pac-12).”

The Cougars took control of the game early on in the first half by slowing down the tempo on offense and searching for the best shot possible. WSU sophomore point guard Ny Redding drove to the basket and dished out a pass to a wide-open Derrien King on the baseline who then buried a 3-pointer to put the Cougars up 21-19.

King hit another 3-pointer to give WSU its biggest lead of the game at 30-25 with 6:35 left in the first half. However, the Huskies responded with a 9-0 run and regained the momentum. UW closed out the first half on a 23-8 run. A big reason why the Huskies were able to regain control of the game was due to the Cougars coughing up 12 turnovers in the first half which led to 14 points scored by UW off of those turnovers.

You could tell it was going to be Washington’s night when UW freshman guard Dejounte Murray recovered a loose ball at half court and then sunk a deep 3-pointer at the buzzer which gave the Huskies a 48-38 lead at halftime.

“The game to me got away from us in the last two minutes of the first half,” Kent said. “Once they got their momentum in the game, Andrews got going on us and it was hard to really shut him down.”

Andrews came out firing early in the second half and helped the Huskies extend their lead to as much as 24 points. Though it seemed Washington was going to easily run away with this game, the Cougars did not give up.

In the final minute of the game WSU redshirt junior guard Que Johnson banked in a 3-pointer while being fouled on the play. The Michigan native converted a four-point play and cut the deficit to eight points with 15 seconds left in the game. But the damage had already been done and despite a small run in the end by WSU, the Huskies were able to achieve victory and keep their NCAA Tournament hopes alive.

For the Cougars, they extend their losing streak to 16 games and will compete as the No. 12 seed in the Pac-12 Tournament in Las Vegas, Nevada, next week.

“You go to Vegas, everybody is zero and zero, you may already have some teams that feel like they’re already in the NCAA Tournament and may not give their hundred percent effort, but we have a chance,” Kent said. “I feel like we can match up with anybody in this conference, we’ve seen the tournament, we’ve battled it, this is no longer new guys, these are veteran guys now and we’re playing everybody on a neutral court.”

Reporting by Evan Baron