Cougars soak it up

SEATTLE – A full half-hour after the end of Wednesday night’s basketball game between Washington State and Washington, nearly half of the Cougars coaches and players milled about on the floor of Bank of America Arena.

There, they chatted casually with fans, friends and family as if nothing had taken place in that same space.

The Cougars are, in a word, a comfortable basketball team.

Comfortable beating their archrival for a fourth consecutive time on Wednesday, 65-61.

Comfortable when playing away from home, having won 11 times this season. Comfortable playing up-tempo, as they did in scoring 40 first-half points, and comfortable playing defense, as they did in shutting out Washington for the final 3 1/2 minutes of the game.

“Sometimes it seems a little surreal, like are we really doing this, especially when you’ve been on the lower end the last couple of years,” junior forward Robbie Cowgill said. “It seems like these guys are answering that call and stepping up to that challenge.”

The Cougars (22-4, 11-3 Pac-10) took the conference lead in wins by calling on nearly every reserve of energy – not to mention a number of reserves on the bench. One game after the Cougars won with only three points off the bench, they beat the Huskies (16-9, 6-8) with 24 points coming from reserves.

No reserve played bigger than sophomore point guard Taylor Rochestie, who scored a team-high 16 points by hitting shots from varying angles and distances. Rochestie was the first Cougar off the bench and ended up playing 31 minutes, frustrating the Washington defense in the process.

“UW knows our personnel pretty well, so hopefully I just crept up on them and slid in a couple of points here and there,” said Rochestie, who hadn’t scored more than nine points in a game this year after transferring in from Tulane following a major knee injury. “I tried to seize the moment and let the adrenaline take over. I’m feeling better physically and mentally from a long year. I’ve just got to stay with it. It was a special night for me and the team.”

Rochestie wasn’t the only substitute playing a role. Antonio Chavers, who had been in just one game all year, played 8 minutes and hit a key first-half 3-pointer, one of many early buckets to fall for WSU. The Cougars shot 60.7 percent from the floor in the first half, and finished at 51 percent overall.

Still, Washington gave itself every opportunity to win yet another game in front of its home crowd.

The Huskies were 15-1 at home coming in, and desperately needed this game to keep their NCAA tournament hopes alive.

UW pounded the ball inside to freshman Spencer Hawes and sophomore Jon Brockman for most of the second half, and the two combined for 37 points and 19 rebounds.

Hawes did not play against WSU last month in Pullman because of an ankle injury, and WSU won by 28.

The Cougars spent much of the night rotating post players in because of foul trouble, and changed their defensive strategy often against the two in an attempt to force them into bad decisions.

In the final 5 minutes, UW’s two most productive players took one shot from the field between them.

“They’re the No. 10 team in the nation and they should be at least that,” Brockman said. “They really just showed what an experienced team that plays hard and plays smart on every single possession does.”

Still, Washington was within a point until the final seconds.

But a pair of possessions yielded missed shots, and Derrick Low calmly swished a pair of free throws with 16.7 seconds left to send the Huskies into desperation mode.

Another Cowgill free throw with 7 seconds remaining iced the game and sent the sizeable Washington State rooting contingent among the crowd of 10,000 into a frenzy.

“We survived and hit enough free throws,” Cougars coach Tony Bennett said. “We just kept hanging in there. … We had enough composure to pull this out in a tough environment.”

They even managed to relax in it afterward, knowing that they had beaten back yet another challenger.

Notes

The Cougars have a full week off before traveling to Oregon for their next game. … WSU is the only team in the Pac-10 that Washington has not beaten in the last two seasons. … Ivory Clark had four dunks in the first half as the Huskies struggled badly on defense. … UW had 17 offensive rebounds but only 14 second-chance points. … This is the first time WSU has swept UW in consecutive seasons since 1967-68 and 1968-69.

WSU 65, Washington 61

Percentages: FG .510, FT .667. 3-Point Goals: 5-9, .556 (Chavers 1-1, Low 2-3, Rochestie 2-4, Clark 0-1). Team Rebounds: 26. Blocked Shots: 5 (Weaver 3). Turnovers: 10 (Low 4). Steals: 8 (Weaver 4). Technical Fouls: None.

Percentages: FG .375, FT .667. 3-Point Goals: 5-15, .333 (Appleby 3-6, Dentmon 2-6, Pondexter 0-1, Oliver 0-1, Burmeister 0-1). Team Rebounds: 36. Blocked Shots: 3 (Brockman, Hawes, Oliver). Turnovers: 11 (Brockman 4). Steals: 2 (Brockman, Dentmon). Technical Fouls: None.

Halftime–Washington State 40, Washington 32. A–10000.