Cougs Run Out Of Time Players Make Too Many Mistakes To Overcome Officials’ Lapse At End

It was unclear which was more painful, the ankle injury that knocked Carlos Daniel from the game with 10:42 remaining, or the late 3-pointer that sent Washington State to its eighth consecutive men’s basketball defeat.

“I think we’re just kind of numb to it,” point guard Blake Pengelly said. “We’ve had a lot of bad things happen to us so far. You get kind of used to it. It was nothing surprising.”

Oregon’s 64-63 victory Thursday night at Friel Court provided the latest test to the Cougars’ pain threshold. Given several chances to win in the final minutes, WSU didn’t know what to do.

“We had too many turnovers,” said junior wing Steve Slotemaker, who led the Cougars with 15 points. “Some of that’s just the anticipation of a possible victory - this is a situation, unfortunately, that we’re not used to this year.”

With Daniel, WSU’s only senior, stationed at the end of the bench, the team’s inexperience proved costly.

With the Cougars leading 60-58 with 1:20 left, sophomore Chris Crosby alertly rebounded Slotemaker’s missed free throw. But instead of running time off the clock, as a more experienced player might have done, he hurriedly missed a 10-footer in the lane.

Twenty seconds later, the Cougars failed to rotate out on Terik Brown, whose 3-pointer from the left wing gave Oregon a 61-60 lead.

With 24 seconds left, Kab Kazadi’s lazy pass intended for Pengelly was intercepted easily by Oregon senior Jamar Curry. Curry raced the other way, was fouled hard by Kazadi and went to the foul line.

Curry missed both attempts, but he made good on a third try after WSU forward Kojo Mensah-Bonsu was whistled for a lane violation.

Down 62-60 with 13.7 seconds left, Pengelly missed the front end of a one-and-one. Mensah-Bonsu rebounded, but missed a 15-footer.

Henry Madden stretched Oregon’s lead to 64-60 by making two free throws with 6.3 seconds left. Kazadi answered with a quick 3-pointer, but the final 1.5 seconds expired when officials failed to blow their whistles.

“It’s kind of a kick in the face every time we lose a close one like that,” Pengelly said.

Asked about the final 1.5 seconds, WSU coach Kevin Eastman bristled.

“Whatever,” he said tersely.

Henry Madden scored 14 points to lead Oregon, which improved to 11-10 overall and 6-6 in the Pacific-10 Conference. Curry and Jonathon Nelson each added 12 points.

When Madden headed to the foul line for his game-clinching free throws, teammate Mike McShane eased the tension with a little levity.

“He turns and says, ‘Your shoe’s untied,’ and I looked down and it wasn’t untied,” Madden said, laughing at the thought. “That took my mind off of it so I could knock it down.”

Daniel and Pengelly joined Slotemaker in double figures for WSU, scoring 10 points apiece. Mensah-Bonsu added eight points and seven rebounds, but the junior forward also committed six turnovers.

Slotemaker and Pengelly committed four turnovers apiece. Of WSU’s 18 turnovers, seven came on attempted entry passes to the post.

The extent of Daniel’s injury was not immediately known. The 6-7, 245-pound senior entered the game leading the Pac-10 in rebounding with 10.2 per game and finished with seven.

, DataTimes