Double trouble

PULLMAN – One time can possibly be dismissed. But two times? That’s a trend. A trend that is tough for Washington State’s basketball team to stomach.

“I think they just out-toughed us both times,” Taylor Rochestie said after the Arizona Wildcats dominated the second half Saturday night and, for the second time this season, hung a double-digit defeat on WSU, this time 65-55 before 10,288 at Beasley Coliseum. “That played a big role tonight and the last time we played them.”

The loss snapped a four-game Washington State winning streak and dropped the 17th-ranked Cougars to 21-6 overall, 9-6 in Pac-10 play. The Wildcats, who had lost four of their last five, including a 75-66 pasting by Washington just two night earlier, moved to 17-10, 7-7 in conference.

“Those 50-50 balls were so important for us,” Rochestie said, “where we just couldn’t come up with them.”

No 50-50 ball was bigger than the one that occurred with 13 minutes left. The Cougars, who had held Jerryd Bayless scoreless – he averaged 31.3 points in his past four games – in an opening 20 minutes, took their first lead since the opening minutes on a Rochestie 3-pointer, one of only five WSU hit all game.

The Cougs could have expanded on the 35-32 edge two possessions later when Bayless, with two points at the time, tried to split a Kyle Weaver and Robbie Cowgill double team and lost the ball.

As it rolled free, Cowgill tried unsuccessfully to scoop the ball up. It got loose and Bayless grabbed it back en route to the basket. The freshman scored, was fouled by Nic Koprivica and converted the three-point play.

“Those are the ones you have to come up with in that type of game,” WSU coach Tony Bennett said. “That was momentum right there.”

The Wildcats used the momentum for a 16-4 run. WSU never got closer than four again.

Bayless rode the momentum to 15 more points, including two 3-pointers when the Cougars threatened to rally back.

He wasn’t alone.

Chase Budinger, who has been in a shooting slump – 31 percent the last five games – hit his first five shots, including two from 3-point range. In Budinger’s recent slump, he was just 6 of 24 from long range.

He also threw a couple daggers, the biggest of which came from 21 feet with 2 minutes left and the Cougars within four at 55-51. He finished with a game-high 22 points on 8 of 13 shooting, including 4 of 7 beyond the arc.

“Everybody started making shots,” Bayless said, noting UA was 8 of 14 from 3-point range. “When we share the ball like that, it makes it hard for anybody to beat us.”

Bennett had a different view.

“He kind of had his way with us in the second half, Bayless did, and that was disappointing,” he said. “First half we did a solid job on him … when you’re on a guy of that ability, you can’t lose track of him, Derrick lost vision on him and he shot rhythm shots.”The Cougars had open looks but couldn’t convert all night. They finished 17 of 50 from the floor (after converting just 7 of 25 first-half shots), 5 of 22 from 3-point range and squandered 12 offensive rebounds, scoring just two second-chance points.

“I thought in the beginning we had some good, wide-open looks,” said Derrick Low, who was 4 of 9 en route to 12 points. “They were good looks, but they weren’t dropping.”

Everyone had problems putting the ball in the basket, but none more so than Aron Baynes, 1 of 5 for two points in 16 minutes, and Weaver, 2 of 10, including 1 of a career-high 6 3-point attempts.

“Aron was out of sorts tonight,” Bennett said of his 6-foot-10 center. “Aron pressed a couple times he got in there. A couple times he wanted to get it all back in one possession.”

Weaver, who did most of the work in the Bayless first-half shutout, finished with 10 points and five assists.

Rochestie, the point guard, led WSU with 14 points and was second with seven rebounds, trailing only Cowgill’s eight.

Jamelle Horne led everyone with 11 rebounds, but it was the 13 points and nine rebounds of 6-10 Jordan Hill that gave Arizona an inside edge.

“The big kid inside is a heck of a player, if you don’t bring a double at him he scores pretty easily,” said Bennett of the sophomore.

And it was Hill that summed up the Wildcats’ strength.

“In the locker room we just started talking, saying the game wasn’t over, let’s just start the second half playing hard and smarter,” he said. “We are a tough team. We have to have that in heart and our mind. We have to have that focus when we step on the court. If we have that, we can just come out and dominate.”

They had it in the second half.

Arizona 65, Washington St. 55

Percentages: FG .500, FT .688. 3-Point Goals: 8-14, .571 (Budinger 4-7, Bayless 2-4, Dillon 1-1, Johnson 1-2). Team Rebounds: 0. Blocked Shots: 0. Turnovers: 10 (Hill 6, Bayless 2, Budinger, McClellan). Steals: 2 (Horne, McClellan). Technical Fouls: None.

Percentages: FG .340, FT .889. 3-Point Goals: 5-22, .227 (Low 2-5, Rochestie 2-8, Weaver 1-6, Harmeling 0-3). Team Rebounds: 2. Blocked Shots: 2 (Baynes, Low). Turnovers: 10 (Baynes 3, Weaver 3, Forrest 2, Low, Harmeling). Steals: 2 (Rochestie, Weaver). Technical Fouls: None.

Halftime – Arizona 24, Washington State 23. A – 10,288.