Tale of the tape: Colorado 58, WSU 49
COUGARS
FROM PULLMAN -- Another loss that felt too familar for Washington State. The Cougars led in the second half, engaged in some back-and-forth, then wilted down the stretch before falling 58-49 to Colorado on Saturday night. We recap the loss. Read on.
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PLAYER OF THE GAME -- Spencer Dinwiddie did nothing in the first half, but he was the difference offensively in the second. Dinwiddie led all scorers with 16 points on 5-8 shooting, scoring 14 of those points in the second half. And he scored 10 of them after WSU had taken its final lead of 37-35, leading the Buffaloes through what amounted to an offensive resurgence. Askia Booker, who didn't shoot well (3-11), also made a pair of important jumpers.
PLAY OF THE GAME -- We'll go with those two jumpers by Booker. The first tied the game at 37-37 with 9:11 to go. The second gave Colorado a 42-37 lead with 8:01 to go, and it capped a 7-0 run that wound up being an important separator. WSU didn't lead again and looked exhausted as it tried to scrap back into it.
STAT OF THE GAME -- As Brock Motum astutely pointed out afterward, Colorado's 19-of-24 showing at the free throw line was the difference in the game, because WSU shot just nine free throws ande made only four. And I don't think you can cry foul on the officiating here. The Buffaloes were simply more aggressive and attacked the rim with more purpose.
QUOTABLE -- "We didn’t help the situation at all. We didn’t execute very well, especially that last two minutes. I know we were frustrated with the fact that we were not scoring very well, had a hard time getting good shots… I think the frustration got the best of us that last couple minutes, but the game was won probably earlier than that. We had opportunites. We did not play very well offensively."
UP NEXT -- At Oregon, a team playing as well as any in the conference right now, at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday. That game will be televised on the Pac-12 Network. The Ducks (16-2, 5-0) won at No. 24 UCLA on Saturday and are in first place by themselves as the Pac-12's lone unbeaten team.
Christian Caple can be reached at christianc@spokesman.com. Twitter: @ChristianCaple