The WSU Cougars kept their hopes of a bowl game alive with their feet and a clutch defense Saturday afternoon in Tucson, Ariz. 

An offense that usually focuses on the pass turned to the run and did just enough to overcome the Arizona Wildcats 24-17. Junior running back Marcus Mason ran for 63 yards and a touchdown, and fellow sophomore running back Teondray Caldwell added 47 yards on the ground. 

The Wildcats’ senior quarterback B.J. Denker tried to send the game to overtime with a late drive at the end of the fourth quarter, but his pass led freshman wide receiver Samajie Grant too far out of the end zone.      

Denker threw for one touchdown in the game and had 200 passing yards against a stalwart Cougar defensive unit. WSU senior safety Deone Bucannon was especially pleased with the work the defense did to contain the talent on the Arizona roster.

“It means a lot because I know in my heart and everyone else knows that we’re never going to give up, no matter what,” Bucannon said. “It doesn’t matter who, or the week before, or the week before that, or whatever happened the last play. We’re going to continue to fight for each other.”

The Cougars stepped up by holding the Wildcats’ explosive junior running back Ka’Deem Carey to 132 rushing yards and a score, and the entire Wildcats’ offense to 395 total yards. Carey also scored his first receiving touchdown of the season, but those were the only two trips to the end zone that the Wildcats made all day. 

The score was tied with seven minutes remaining in the game. At this point, the Cougars took over at their own 20-yard line after Arizona senior kicker Jake Smith missed a 34-yard field goal that would have put the Wildcats ahead. WSU redshirt junior quarterback Connor Halliday took over and drove his team down the field, completing passes for double-digit yards to redshirt junior wide receiver Kristoff Williams, redshirt sophomore wide receiver Dom Williams, and Caldwell. 

Then Halliday capped off his day with a 25-yard pass to junior wide receiver Isiah Myers to give the Cougars a seven-point lead. 

Halliday threw his other touchdown pass to freshman wide receiver River Cracraft in the third quarter. The quarterback finished the game with 319 passing yards and only one interception. 

The Cougar offense attacked the 3-3-5 defense of the Wildcats by running the ball frequently, which allowed WSU to control the time of possession in the game. The Cougars had the ball for eight minutes longer than the Wildcats, which could have led to the lack of time Arizona had at the end of the game to score. 

Nevertheless, Denker, Carey, and the rest of the Wildcats’ offense went to work with about two minutes left in the game. Denker connected with Carey three times on the drive and even used his own legs on a fourth-down play to scramble away from the oncoming Cougars for a first down. 

The Wildcats ran out of timeouts and eventually had to go for it again on fourth and four, and that turned out to be the final play as Denker’s pass to Grant was caught out of the end zone. Almost immediately, the Cougars rushed the field to celebrate the upset. 

“This was really a team win,” Halliday said. “Special teams played well, offense played well, defense played well, all the way around the board. These are the things you live for, when you get into the locker room with the guys and it was a team win and everybody’s happy.”

WSU improves to 5-5 on the season and needs one more win to secure bowl-game eligibility. Meanwhile, the Wildcats drop to 6-4.