Cougs deliver the goods
SEATTLE – Tony Bennett managed to describe his team’s final non-conference game of the season in two short words Thursday night.
“Bad. Good,” the coach said.
Bad, as in a first half, when Washington State did almost nothing right while falling behind 33-23. Bad, as in shooting 1 of 12 from 3-point range. Bad, as in giving up an easy 13 points to San Diego State star Brandon Heath.
And good, unbelievably good, as in the second half, which the Cougars opened with a 27-4 run. Good, as in holding the Aztecs (10-3) without a field goal for 12 minutes and 14 seconds after their first possession. Good, as in a career-high 11 rebounds for Kyle Weaver and 17 points for Robbie Cowgill.
Most of all, though, good, as in a 64-54 win in front of a supportive KeyArena crowd. And good, as in an 11-1 record as the Cougars turn to Pac-10 play and a conference-opening date with No. 1 UCLA on the road in six days.
“It’s funny, I told them (at halftime), ‘I’m not going to go ballistic on you and wild,’ ” Bennett said. ‘ “I’m just really disappointed because I felt like we came out very flat and soft.’
“It really wasn’t a – whatever you want to call it – a fire and brimstone. It was just, let’s go. Show me what you’ve got in the second half. I said we’re going to find out, and they responded.”
No two players were more central to the turnaround than Weaver and Cowgill. Weaver endured a miserable 0-for-6 first half, including a number of misses from in close. But he came out of halftime a changed player, immediately scoring by getting into the paint on offense. Then, even more significantly, he asked to take over defensive responsibilities on Heath from Derrick Low.
Weaver held Heath to seven late points in the second half, and ending up with his first double-double, 16 points to go with the 11 rebounds.
“I talked to D-Low on the court and said, ‘Let me get him,’ ” Weaver said. “Just a personal thing right there. Guarding him made me more aggressive offensively as well.”
Then Cowgill, who has been in a horrific offensive slump for much of the season, chipped in with a big offensive contribution. The 6-foot-10 forward even nailed a 3-pointer to extend the Cougars lead to eight points. After trailing by 10 at the half, WSU led by as many as 14 in the second.
“It was good to get the points up and finally feel like I was contributing offensively like I should be,” Cowgill said.
The Cougars called upon just six players in the second half, using Low, Weaver, Cowgill, Daven Harmeling, Ivory Clark and freshman Nikola Koprivica, who got his first career start and responded with a career-high 11 points.
“I like Ivory coming off the bench, for one thing,” Bennett said, explaining the decision to start Koprivica. “Baynes, I think, still has to get his ankle healthier. He’s not full strength yet. I just wanted a little more of a ball handler on the floor in that three spot, and Nik is just a good cutter. He moves without the ball so well, and he’s been getting better defensively.”
With Koprivica emerging, Bennett has more options as he looks forward to Pac-10 season. With different players stepping forward to handle the scoring load in most games, he has plenty of reasons to smile at 11-1.
Notes
A last-minute reshuffling of the refereeing crew was necessary because the snowstorm in Denver kept part of the planned trio from making the trip to Seattle. … The announced crowd of 5,872 fit entirely into the lower bowl of the SuperSonics’ home arena, but made plenty of noise down the stretch as the Cougars rallied. … WSU scored 29 points off 20 San Diego State turnovers.