Husky Men's Basketball Blog | Washington State live game thread
IT'S OVER --- UW 59-55.
CLOSE CALL --- Ross fouled out. UW 56-54, 1:21.
HERE WE GO --- Tense game. Not a peep from the crowd now. UW 56-54, 1:40.
TIED AGAIN --- UW 52-52, 3:43.
N'DIAYE OUT --- That's five on N'Diaye and he's out of the game. WSU 52-50.
TIED AGAIN --- UW 47-47, 7:50.
NEARLY ALL THE WAY BACK --- Gant is going to the line with a chance to take the lead. The Huskies are on a 12-0 run. WSU 47-46, 7:50.
HUSKIES RUNNING --- WSU 47-46, 8:25.
SLIPPING AWAY --- WSU 47-38, 9:48.
LOSING THEIR COMPOSURE --- Seferian-Jenkins drew a technical foul. For what? I don't know. The Cougars are on an 11-0 run. WSU 44-32, 13:11.
CRAZY LOUD --- Capers swatted Wilcox's short jumper to send the fans into a frenzy. This place is crazy. WSU 41-32, 15:50.
DISCOMBOBULATED --- Gaddy failed to execute a timeout and lost the ball, which led to a Capers fast break layup. Never seen that before. WSU 39-32, 16:58.
HIGHLIGHT -- Motum posterized Ross with a nice dunk. Ross retaliated and threw the ball at Motum. Ross drew a foul trying to defend the play. He has four and is on the bench. WSU 35-32, 17:52.
SECOND HALF --- Same starters. WSU 31-30, 19:03.
HALFTIME OBSERVATIONS --- The Huskies are lucky the score is tied 28-28. They're getting destroyed on the glass 28-16 and Ross and N'Diaye both have three fouls. Wilcox has kept Washington in the game. He's 4 for 4 on three-pointers for 12 points. Bone made the smart decision to get out of the zone and handcuff Wilcox with Capers. Not sure what he's going to do when Ross and Wilcox are on the floor at the same time.
Washington's defense isn't bad, In fact, the initial defense has been excellent. WSU is shooting 26.7 percent (8 for 30). However, the Huskies are doing a lousy job of securing rebounds. They've allowed eight offensive rebounds and many have led to putback layups.
Motum has 10 points, but he's taken 11 shots and is working hard. He also has three turnovers.
This feels like a game a runs and momentum swings. The Huskies will have to weather some down moments and keep their composure. It would help if Ross recovers from a slow start. He's 0 for 3 and is scoreless. In the last game, he exploded for 26 second-half points.
HALFTIME STATS --- Click here.
HALFTIME --- UW 28-28.
WHERE'S WILCOX? --- Capers has done a nice job lately on Wilcox. He's not leaving him for a second. UW 26-26, 1:11.
ASJ --- Austin seferian-Jenkins is in. UW 26-24, 2:02.
ALL SQUARE --- Tied again. UW 22-22, 3:08.
FOUL DISPARITY --- Ten fouls on UW, two on WSU.
WHAT WAS HE THINKING? --- Moore tried to flush a tomahawk jam on Wilcox, but the UW guard wasn't having it. He got a lot of arm on the block and knocked Moore to the floor on a hard foul. No gimmes in a rivalry game. UW 22-18, 3:52.
WILCOX ON FIRE --- Wilcox 4x4 from the field. All other Huskies: 5-for-21. uw 22-18, 3:52
WILCOX AGAIN --- Wilcox has shot the Cougars out of the zone. He has three three-pointers. UW 22-18, 5:11.
FOUL TROUBLE --- Ross delivered a hard foul on D.J. Shelton to prevent a layup. Ross has three fouls. UW 14-14, 7:50.
WILCOX --- Just when things looked a little bleak, Wilcox drains two three-pointers. Looks like it's going to be a game of momentum swings. Huskies on an 8-0 run. UW 14-14, 8:24.
NICE SHOT --- Wroten scored on a layup breaking an 8-minute drought. Wilcox also knocked down a three. WSU 14-11, 8:32.
BAD SHOOTING --- The Huskies are 0-9 shooting since they started the game with a 6-0 scoring run. They've missed six three-pointers total. UW WSU 14-6, 10:17.
CONFUSED --- The 2-3 is causing major problems for the Huskies. They led 6-0, but have been shutout ever since. They're being lulled into taking semi-open three-pointers and they're missing them. They're getting nothing inside.
LACY OUT --- DaVonte Lacy ran off the court and into the locker room holding his hand/wrist. Looked like he dislocated a finger. WSU 10-6, 11:53.
SECOND SUB --- Simmons is in. WSU 8-6, 14:09.
FIRST SUB --- C.J. Wilcox is in. WSU 8-6, 14:42.
IT IN THE HOUSE --- Isaiah Thomas is dressed in black and sitting in the first row behind the UW bench.
SEEN THIS BEFORE --- The Cougars are applying token pressure and falling back into a zone. The Huskies have failed to score on their last three possessions. UW 6-5, 15:42.
MATCHUPS --- Gant has Motum and he's doing a pretty good job. UW 6-5, 16:13.
GOOD START --- The Cougars have missed their first five shots. UW 6-0, 17:03.
STARTING LINEUPS --- Slight change for UW: Darnell Gant is in for Desmond Simmons. Everyone else is the same. Abdul Gaddy, Tony Wroten Jr., Terrence Ross and Aziz N'Diaye.
BACK IN BLACK --- The Huskies are wearing their black jerseys. I should have kept track of their record in the black unis. The last time the wore them was against Arizona I believe.
SENIOR CELEBRATION --- The Cougars are honoring their seniors.
THIS CRAP HAS GOT TO STOP --- Just when you start feeling good about WSU fans they break out derisive chants that make you wince. Really Wazzu? Really? That crap is old. It's moronic and simple. No place for that in college athletics. Maybe I'm getting old. Don't think so. Maybe I'm getting soft after living almost 20 years in the Pacific Northwest. I remember when I'd throw dog biscuits at the Pittsburgh Steelers when I saw in the Dawg Pound at Cleveland Browns games. That feels a little different. Maybe it's because those guys were professionals paid millions. When you hear the lewd comments being chanted around this building towards student-athletes, it feels wrong. And it's amazing the administration doesn't do more to curb this type of behavior. I've been coming here for three years and it's the same thing. When the chants begin, the WSU coaches smirk at each other or they look down at their shoes. The ironic part is a video of Ken Bone asking fans to show good sportsmanship just aired on the video board. That's not enough. Bone should make this stop.
PAC-12 UPDATE --- Arizona held on to beat UCLA 65-63. The Wildcats (12-5 Pac-12) are even with Washington in the win column, but they're 1 1/2 games back in the standings.
CAMP OUT MOVES INDOORS --- Bud Withers is covering the game with me and he has blog item on WSU's scheduled camp out. Apparently, WSU president Elson Floyd had the kids move inside this morning due to the cold conditions.
RED AND LOUD --- Got to hand it to WSU, it has arguably the largest student section in college basketball. Seriously. The students fill four sections in the lower bowl across from the benches. They're unified in their serious dislike for the Huskies.
WINTRY DAY --- Blustery, snowy conditions in Pullman. The Huskies made their way to Friel Court and they're being booed as they take the court. Terrence Ross and Martin Breunig were the first to arrive.
