Short-Handed Huskies Come Up Short on the Scoreboard at WSU

On Wednesday night in Pullman, the Washington and Washington State basketball teams played for the 294th time in one of the longest-running series in the college game.

History firmly was on the Cougars' side in this one — as was the scoreboard, second-half momentum and immediate state bragging rights.

With the UW down a pair of injured starters, Mike Hopkins' team played gamely throughout but lost 78-70 to opportunistic WSU at Friel Court.

The outcome moved the overall series record to 186-108, bringing the Cougars one win closer but still with plenty of work to do to catch the Huskies.

They play again in 72 hours, meeting in Seattle on Saturday night.

These were middle-of-the-road Pac-12 teams who played hard throughout the game. They were never separated by more than four points over the opening half and were tied at 33 at halftime.

However, WSU (15-12 overall, 8-8 Pac-12) made all the right adjustments during the break to snap its five-game losing streak and extend the misery for the UW (13-13, 8-8) to four straight setbacks.

"Obviously we didn't win, but we put ourselves in position to win," Hopkins said.

Th UW simply had no answer for 6-foot-11 freshman post player Mouhamad Gueye from Senegal who shredded the Hopkins zone. He fired up shot after shot from the key for 13 first-half points, either on jumpers or one-handers, and kept going for a career-best 25.

The Huskies, no match for a big front line all season , also were hurt by 6-foot-10 sophomore Efe Abogidi, a Nigerian who came up with a 21-point, 14-rebound effort.

As expected, the Huskies showed up with without two starters in point guard Daejon Davis (shoulder) and forward Emmitt Matthews Jr. (concussion).

Hopkins pulled it together by using PJ Fuller and Langston Wilson as replacements. The 6-foot-9 Wilson, a springy Georgia junior-college transfer originally from Pennsylvania, provided a pair of dunks for his first points of the game but wasn't really heard from again.

Fuller, the 6-foot-4 TCU transfer and Seattle native, stepped up and supplied a season high with 23 points. He dropped in 7 of 14 shots, 5 of 9 from 3-point range. It was his second game of 20 or more for the UW.

"He's been working real hard with Will Conroy on his shot," his coach, now playing the guard 35 minutes instead of 20 with Davis out.

Fuller was badly needed. Teammate Terrell Brown, the Pac-12's leading scorer coming in at 21.8 points per game, was held to a season-low 11 points on 5-for-13 shooting as the Cougars went after him.

The play of the UW reserve swingman Cole Bajema really helped pick up the slack in the early going. He had a team-high 9 points at intermission on 4-of-6 shooting, though his two misses missed everything, and he finished with 11.

Yet coming out of the break, five different Cougars hit shots, beginning with South Alabama transfer Michael Flowers sinking a 3-pointer, and they outscored their visitors 13-1 and suddenly had a 46-34 lead and the UW on its heels.

Fuller briefly gave the Huskies a scare when he crumpled to the floor midway through the second half and couldn't readily get to his feet. He apparently cramped up but was able to continue.

The UW made it interesting the rest of the way, pulling within 71-70, but was never able to catch the Cougars.

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