Free Throws Sink
the Cougs as Utah Rallies Late
1/7/2018| Women's Basketball from
WSU Sports Info
PULLMAN, Wash. - In a game dominated by whistles it was no surprise that the contest would be decided at the free throw line as Utah (12-3, 3-1 Pac-12) hit a pair of freebies with 0.5 seconds remaining in the game to steal a win on the road against the Cougars (8-8, 1-3 Pac-12) play. Dominating for most of the game, the Cougs could never quite shake the hard-nosed Utes despite another huge scoring effort out of Borislava Hristova who scored a game-high 29 points and finished just one point shy of being the third Coug to ever record back-to-back 30-point efforts. For three quarters, the Cougs shot the lights out of Beasley, pushing their lead to as much as 13 points late in the third before going cold in the game's final period. Using a 14-2 run, initially sparked by the play of Daneesha Provo, between the end of the third and the start of the fourth to turn a potential blowout into a 69-69 tie with 7:37 to play. Provo would score 14 of her 22 points in the second half before fouling out of the game 2:27 to go. With Provo out, the Cougs would score five quick points to go up 77-72 with 2:03 to play only to be outscored 9-2 in the final minutes. Alexys Swedlundwould tie the game at 79-79 with the Cougs final points of the game from the line only to see the game slip away in the final second thanks to the two free throws by Tilar Clark. Clark was fouled after collecting a pair of offensive rebounds when the Cougs forced an initial bad shot by the Utes with just :04 seconds to play.
Stat of the Game The Utes hit 22-of-24 from the line including 7-of-9 in the final frame while the Cougs went 9-of-15 from the charity stripe.
Things You Need To Know
· The Cougs fell for the second-straight game against the Utes
who beat the Cougs in Beasley at the end of last season.
· Borislava Hristova led all scorers with 29 points and finished the
weekend with 65 points, the most combined points for the redshirt-sophomore for
a single weekend.
· Alexys Swedlund chipped in 14 points on 4-of-7 shooting including
3-of-5 from deep.
· WSU shot 47.1% (32-for-68) from the floor, just shy of their
season high, while the Utes finished shooting 38.2% (26-for-68).
· Four Utah scorers hit double-figures in Daneesha Provo (22),
Megan Huff (14), Emily Potter (11), and Erika Bean (11).
· Utah dominated the glass 50-to-32 including 20 offensive rebounds
that lead to 20 second-chance points.
· The Cougs forced 24 turnovers with a season-high 19 steals
but were outscored 21-to-20 in points off of turnovers.
· WSU hits the road for California with the Cougs' first stop
being the No. 24 Stanford Friday night at Maples Pavilion.
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John Blanchette about WSU football
Source:
http://www.greatfallstribune.com/story/sports/2018/01/06/sunday-conversation-acclaimed-sports-columnist-john-blanchette/1009594001/
QUESTION TO JOHN BLANCHETTE: The Washington State football
team is having a bit of a renaissance under coach Mike Leach, but I’ve got to
ask you about our quarterbacks in Montana who played there for the Cougs. What
do you remember most about Ryan Leaf and Matt Kegel?
ANSWER FROM JOHN BLANCHETTE: That was a great era for Cougar
football, it really was. Ryan Leaf did something here that no one had done in
67 years, which was take his team to the Rose Bowl. The force of his
personality was I think one of the reasons it happened. He was obviously very
brash at that time and didn’t care a whole lot of what had happened in the past
at Washington State. He was going to achieve what he wanted to achieve. For
whatever happened to Ryan after that, he’ll always have the legacy he put down
here as being the quarterback who got them back to the Rose Bowl. And then
about five years later Matt Kegel, who went through his own trials here – I
remember an Apple Cup that could have been devastating to him - but he bounced
back and took a team to a bowl game and had maybe the best bowl performance
they ever had (Cougs defeated Texas 28-20 in 2003 Holiday Bowl). That was an
important step for Washington State, but the sad thing there was they never
really built on that. They didn’t draft the moment and use it to build some
much-needed facilities. They had three 10-win seasons in a row and could have
really got some momentum from that. And they didn’t use it. A lot of schools
build on that, and Washington State didn’t.
……………………………………………………
Rivalry regrets
Cougars squander lead, miss late chance to tie, fall to
Huskies
By Joshua Grissom Moscow Pullman Daily News
Jan 7, 2018
PULLMAN - Robert Franks may have tallied his third
double-double of the season, but the junior forward missed the one shot that
mattered the most Saturday afternoon.
With the Cougars needing a trey to force overtime against
Pac-12 rival Washington, Franks' open look from the baseline clanked off the
rim, sealing a 70-65 conference defeat for Washington State in front of home
crowd of 3,477 fans at Beasley Coliseum.
"I think that was a great shot," a downcast Franks
said following the game. "I've just got to make it."
It was a disappointing result for coach Ernie Kent after his
squad led by as many as 10 points in the second half and dominated the boards
by a 40-25 margin.
"This conference is tough, every single game will be a
40-minute mini version of your season," Kent said. "It's just going
to be dogfight. At some point in that game, it's going to come down to who can
make plays."
The Huskies (12-4 overall, 2-1 Pac-12) were able to pull off
the double-digit comeback after shooting a blistering 73.9 percent from the
floor in the final 20 minutes of the contest.
"There came a point and time in the game where we
needed to dig our heels in and make plays - tough plays, defensive stops,"
Kent said. "We were not able to get it done. Some of that has to do with
experience ... there were a lot of plays we could have made in that game
centered around defense."
Ball security issues also plagued the Cougars (8-7, 0-3)
throughout the afternoon, as the squad surrendered a season-high 23 turnovers
in the loss.
"It's nothing that they were doing, it was just us
being hesitant with the ball," junior guard Viont'e Daniels said. "It
was just mental lapses that cost us the game."
Foul trouble also proved to be a key factor in the second
half, as senior forward Drick Bernstine was forced to leave the game with 4:27
left after picking up his fifth personal foul. Bernstine's absence appeared to
shift the momentum of the contest, as Washington utilized a smaller lineup and
a quicker tempo on the hardwood.
"That bothered us a little bit keeping the two bigs on
the floor, that's where the fouls were coming," Kent said. "I thought
that changed the game in their favor."
The Cougars also struggled to gain an advantage in the key,
as junior forward Noah Dickerson poured in 11 of his team's 50 points in the
paint.
Franks led the way for Washington State with 22 points and
12 boards while Daniels finished with 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting. Bernstine
added 10 points and seven rebounds against the Husky zone defense before fouling
out.
Washington State returns to Pac-12 action Thursday when the
squad plays host to Stanford in a 6 p.m. meeting at Beasley Coliseum.
INJURY REPORT - Sophomore forward Jeff Pollard took a hard
tumble late in the first half following a collision with Nahziah Carter.
Pollard remained motionless on the ground for several moments before gingerly
getting to his feet and walking off the court under his own power.
"For a guy as big and as strong as he is, he's
certainly involved in a lot of collisions and coming out on the short end of
them," Kent said.
Pollard eventually returned to the matchup, finishing the
afternoon with five points and six rebounds.
"It was nice to see him get back in the game, get some
big buckets, big free throws and big charges coming down the stretch,"
Kent said.
WASHINGTON (12-4)
Timmins 0-1 0-0 0, Dickerson 5-9 1-2 11, Nowell 7-13 0-0 15,
Thybulle 6-10 4-4 17, Crisp 6-11 3-5 15, Wright 0-1 0-0 0, N.Carter 1-3 0-0 2,
Green 0-1 0-0 0, M.Carter 0-0 0-0 0, Johnson 4-6 2-3 10. Totals 29-55 10-14 70.
WASHINGTON ST. (8-7)
Franks 7-16 7-7 22, Bernstine 5-10 0-0 10, Skaggs 2-7 0-0 6,
Daniels 5-8 0-1 13, Flynn 1-9 2-2 5, Chidom 0-0 0-0 0, Pollard 2-4 1-3 5,
Hinson 0-1 0-0 0, Acquaah 1-2 2-4 4. Totals 23-57 12-17 65.
Halftime-Washington St. 30-27. 3-Point Goals-Washington 2-12
(Nowell 1-2, Thybulle 1-3, Wright 0-1, N.Carter 0-1, Johnson 0-1, Green 0-1,
Crisp 0-3), Washington St. 7-27 (Daniels 3-6, Skaggs 2-7, Franks 1-5, Flynn
1-8, Acquaah 0-1). Fouled Out-Bernstine, Dickerson. Rebounds-Washington 23
(Dickerson 6), Washington St. 38 (Franks 12). Assists-Washington 8 (Crisp 3),
Washington St. 11 (Skaggs, Daniels 3). Total Fouls-Washington 22, Washington
St. 17. A-3,477 (11,671).
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Cougar BasketballCougarsHuskiesHusky
BasketballPac-12SportsVideo
Ernie Kent says WSU wilted defensively in second half of
70-65 loss to UW
Originally published January 6, 2018 at 4:54 pm Updated
January 6, 2018 at 4:56 pm
On blowing a 10-point second-half lead: 'It's like layup
city to the basket. ... You're not going to beat anybody giving up 75 percent
shooting in a half.'
By Percy Allen Seattle
Times
Ernie Kent was not happy with the way Washington State
performed in the second half of Saturday’s 70-65 loss against in-state rival
Washington State.
The Cougar coach bemoaned WSU’s defense, which allowed UW to
shoot 73.9 percent in the second half.
The Huskies also overcame a 10-point deficit and outscored
the Cougars 43-35 after the break.
Here’s Kent’s opening statement in the post-game press
conference.
“We were not able to
get it done. Some of that has to do with experience. I think Washington, you
look at guys who have been in this situation before as starters. (David) Crisp,
(Matisse) Thybulle, (Noah) Dickerson and (Sam) Timmins, they kind of willed
themselves through and made all of the tough plays – I call them – down the
stretch in the game.
“We get a 10-point lead and it’s like Layup City to the
basket. We go zone and it’s still layups. They isolated our studs and drove
them to the basket. And it wasn’t like they were shooting jump shots, they were
getting layups. We talk to this team, you’re not going to beat anybody giving
up 75 percent shooting in a half. That’s very difficult to do.
“We got no one to blame, but ourselves. Offensively, we were
good enough in the game even though we didn’t shoot the 3 well. But there were
a lot of plays we could have made in that game that centered around defense and
we did not get it done.”
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