Cougs can’t close

PULLMAN – Since the Bennetts arrived on the Palouse, one streak after another has fallen by the wayside as the Cougars have taken care of their Pac-10 basketball opponents.

But at least one remains – Washington State still can’t find a way to beat the Ducks.

Never has it been closer than it was Saturday night, either. The Cougars led 64-62 in the closing seconds and the final buzzer sounded on their win, only to have a foul called on center Aron Baynes and .5 seconds put back on the clock. Maarty Leunen, who hadn’t scored a point all night, calmly drained two free throws to send the game to overtime, where Oregon took a 10-point lead and held on against a furious Cougars comeback to win 77-74. It was Oregon’s 12th consecutive victory in the series.

With the win, the Ducks (19-2, 7-2 Pac-10) claimed second place in the conference with the Cougars (17-4, 6-3) falling into a third-place tie with Southern California.

In the closing seconds of overtime, WSU had three 3-point attempts to tie the game, the first by Kyle Weaver and the next two by Derrick Low. Both had to force Oregon turnovers in the last 12 seconds to earn those opportunities, but none of their shots found the mark.

“We felt like the longer it went the more pressure it would put on them as to, ‘Oh no, here we go again with Oregon,’ ” Oregon coach Ernie Kent said. “And certainly it looked like that in overtime until Low stepped up with his heroics.”

Even without one of his final heaves at the basket finding the mark, Low still scored a career-high 37 points, riddling the Ducks with nine 3-pointers, including two in overtime. Low, in fact, scored all 10 of the Cougars’ points in the extra session to get WSU back in the game despite obvious fatigue.

“Offensively, tremendous,” Cougars coach Tony Bennett said. “He was aggressive. We needed it. He carried us.

“You’ve got to dance with the one who brought you there. I kept looking at him and asking him if he was OK.”

But Low’s exploits were matched nearly shot for shot by Oregon’s Aaron Brooks, who had 31 points, including a number of key buckets down the stretch in regulation. One came from 30 feet and banked in to bring Oregon within two points with less than two minutes to play. Prior to that, the Ducks hadn’t been close to the lead in nearly 10 minutes, and the lead they took in overtime was their first since the final minutes of the first half.

As Oregon scored the first 10 points of overtime, the Friel Court crowd of 11,092 was noticeably silent, the air taken out of the building after the foul call on Baynes. Bryce Taylor had missed a baseline jumper that Maarty Leunen collected, and the forward’s putback attempt fell short.

The whistle could not be heard over the roar of the crowd, and for a moment it appeared that WSU would escape, still undefeated at home this season. The Cougars were 10-0 in Pullman coming into the game.

“I thought I saw Baynes straight up and down and (he) didn’t foul,” Bennett said. “The official, he told me absolutely it was a foul. So I’ll watch the film and we’ll see and that’s all I’ll leave it at because I don’t want to talk about it.”

Leunen was 0 for 7 from the floor before making the two free throws.

“We worked very hard,” Low said. “We fought hard through this game. We felt like we should have had them, but this is how good the Pac-10 is.”

Notes

Nikola Koprivica injured his right knee in the first half and Bennett said an MRI is needed. The initial prognosis is not good, however, and replays showed the knee bending in an awkward direction. … WSU led by eight points with 3:18 to go in regulation when forward Ivory Clark fouled out, a loss that perhaps allowed the Ducks to grab a few precious rebounds down the stretch. … Low’s nine 3-pointers tied a school record already shared by multiple players. His 37 points tie him for 10th on the WSU single-game scoring list. … Weaver and Chris Matthews both had 13 points for WSU, while Tajuan Porter had 17 and Malik Hairston 13 for Oregon.

Oregon 77, Washington St. 74 (OT)

Percentages: FG .446, FT .750. 3-Point Goals: 12-25, .480 (Porter 5-7, Brooks 5-10, Hairston 1-2, Leunen 1-3, Oguchi 0-1, Taylor 0-2). Team Rebounds: 42. Blocked Shots: 1 (Schafer). Turnovers: 19 (Porter 6, Taylor 3, Leunen 2, Brooks 2, Hairston 2, Schafer 2, Oguchi, Catron). Steals: 4 (Brooks, Hairston, Taylor, Catron 1). Technical Fouls: Team.

Percentages: FG .410, FT .722. 3-Point Goals: 11-29, .379 (Low 9-16, Matthews 2-5, Forrest 0-1, Weaver 0-3, Harmeling 0-4). Team Rebounds: 28. Blocked Shots: 10 (Cowgill 3, Weaver 3, Clark 2, Baynes 2). Turnovers: 9 (Weaver 2, Harmeling, Clark, Cowgill, Low, Rochestie, Baynes). Steals: 14 (Low 5, Weaver 4, Cowgill 2, Matthews 2, Clark).

Halftime–Washington State 33, Oregon 27. A–11,092.