COUGARS

FROM LOS ANGELES -- Washington State's basketball season is starting to feel like something of a Bill Murray movie. You can probably guess which one. Read on for our recap of Thursday's 72-68 loss at USC.

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PLAYER OF THE GAME -- DaVonte Lacy led all scorers with 21 points, and Byron Wesley led the winning team with 20 points. But J.T. Terrell's play is probably what people are going to remember the most. Terrell, who isn't shy about shooting, attempted just one shot in the first half as he was slogged with foul trouble. But he made three 3-pointers in fewer than two minutes in the second half, and added a coast-to-coast layup as part of USC's 9-1 run that earned the Trojans their final separation.

PLAY OF THE GAME -- Terrell's final 3-pointer, a high-arcing shot from the corner, broke a 53-53 tie and put USC ahead for good. WSU coach Ken Bone said he felt like that was the one shot on which the Cougars didn't account for Terrell, overcommitting to help on a drive into the key by Jio Fontan, who found Terrell wide open.

STAT OF THE GAME -- Bone flicked the stat sheet as we talked afterward, pointed to the part about WSU's 39.3 percent shooting performance, and said "this right here continues to haunt us. We're just not a good scoring team." The Cougars made just 12 of their 33 field goal attempts in the second half. Another big number: Fontan finished with 11 assists, and WSU went more than five minutes without a field goal during two separate stretches in the second half.

QUOTABLE -- "It’s just rough, because we’re in every game and it’s like we’re right there with four or five minutes to go. It sucks, because we’re so close. I would trade every one of my points for a win." -- sophomore guard DaVonte Lacy

UP NEXT -- Saturday at UCLA, a 7 p.m. game broadcast on the Pac-12 Networks. The Bruins escaped with a 59-57 win over Washington tonight thanks to a buzzer-beating jumper.

Christian Caple can be reached at christianc@spokesman.com. Twitter: @ChristianCaple

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