Ideal end at Friel

PULLMAN – When it was finally done – the game, the regular season and, for the three key players in Washington State’s basketball renaissance, their games in Beasley Coliseum – the Cougars didn’t want to leave Friel Court.

Why would they?

They had just survived a double-overtime 76-73 Pac-10 contest on Saturday against their archrivals, the Washington Huskies, and the 10,630 in attendance, few of whom had left, were washing away their exhaustion with wave after wave of cheers.

“I’m glad we won,” said Robbie Cowgill, one of five seniors honored before the game. “That made it that more special. … There were tons of subplots going in, our streak against them, our last game, senior night, all those things. Then for it to be such a great game, double overtime, both teams battling, it’s probably a game I’ll remember the rest of my life.”

So, after the 23rd-ranked Cougars had survived a four-point deficit with 1 minute, 51 seconds left in regulation, a two-point deficit with less than 6 seconds remaining in the first overtime and Ryan Appleby’s last-second possibly tying 3-pointer in the second, the Cougs huddled together at center court.

First came a Tony Bennett speech that left the WSU coach, by his own admission, a “blubbering mess.”

Then the team turned, saluted the students with applause before moving across the court to repeat the acknowledgment.

Is it any wonder then the Cougars’ seventh consecutive win over UW – WSU’s longest streak in the history between the teams – was, according to senior Derrick Low, the best of them all?

“This game had to be up there as far as excitement,” said Low after playing 47 of a possible 50 minutes. “With all the emotions in the air because it was senior night … the excitement of playing U-Dub. Out of all those games, this is the most exciting one.”

In his extended time on the court – Low, Kyle Weaver, Cowgill and Taylor Rochestie, the lone junior of the bunch, all played 40 minutes or more and all finished in double-figures scoring – the guard from Hawaii was as aggressive as he had been in his previous 106 WSU games. It resulted in 16 points, all before the overtime sessions.

That’s when Weaver, who had a game-high 20 points built around a 9-of-13 performance at the foul line, Rochestie and Cowgill took over.

Down 58-54 near the end of regulation, Weaver connected on two free throws, then Cowgill and Aron Baynes harassed Jon Brockman into a miss.

Rochestie blew by Justin Dentmon with 14 seconds left, fed Cowgill for a layup and a Brockman foul.

Though Cowgill missed the free throw – “I teased Robbie, I said just make the free throw and we don’t have to go through that drama,” Bennett said – the Huskies didn’t get a chance to win it. That’s because Weaver stripped Dentmon with 2.8 seconds left and took off down the court.

“The jets turned off on me,” Weaver said, “I thought I had a layup. I was going down and I (saw) the one and the zero coming up quick (on the clock) and just tried to get it up.”

“That’s was one of the coolest mental pictures I’ve had my whole life,” Rochestie said. “I watched him and I was like, ‘This couldn’t get any sweeter.’ … I’m sad he missed it because that would have been one hell of an ending.”

But Weaver’s floater, launched from the free-throw line at the buzzer, didn’t fall and, for the second consecutive year, the Cougs’ senior night was going to overtime.

WSU fell behind twice by three, but Rochestie answered with a 3-pointer each time. Still, after Brockman made 1 of 2 free throws – the 16-15 Huskies are the nation’s worst free-throw shooting team (58.5 percent) but made 14 of 20, including eight in a row at one point – UW led 67-65 with 32.7 seconds left.

Rochestie tried to win it with a 3 as the clock ran down. He missed and there was a scrum for the rebound.

“It kind of just was right there,” said Cowgill, who finished with 10 points and eight rebounds. “There was a battle for it, a lot of bodies flying and all of a sudden it was right there on the ground. I picked it up and put it in.”

“That one rebound that Cowgill got,” will haunt him, Appleby said. “It’s like somebody stabbing a knife in your heart right there.”

Cowgill’s putback tied it at 67 with 5.8 seconds left. Again, UW couldn’t get a final shot, with Weaver stripping Venoy Overton this time on a drive to the basket.

The second overtime started better for WSU (23-7 overall and 11-7, third, in the Pac-10) with a Weaver free throw followed by a Rochestie fumble that ended up in Baynes’ hands. The 6-foot-10 junior dunked the loose ball, hit an ensuing free throw and WSU led by four.

Though Appleby pulled UW within one with a 22-footer, the Huskies’ (7-11 in conference) hopes took a tumble when Brockman did.

The junior, who had another double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds, right on his averages, came down hard and left the game with a sprained ankle with less than 2 minutes left.

Without him, WSU attacked inside and built a six-point bulge on free throws from Weaver and Rochestie.

But Appleby answered with a 21-footer off a designed play to cut the lead to three, Weaver was tied up by Matthew Bryan-Amaning for a turnover and UW had another shot. It would be Appleby’s.

“The ball got deflected and I had to kind of run after it toward the sideline and then throw it up there at the end because I didn’t have a lot of time,” said the senior who finished with 16 points. “It was a tougher shot. It felt good when it left my hand, but I didn’t have time to square it all the way up. It was kind of grab it and shoot it on the run.”

The deflection was Cowgill’s, the hand in his face was Weaver’s, the win the Cougars.

“We covered it well, he was falling back, but … it made you go, ‘What’s going on here,’ ” Bennett said. “He’s falling back from, it looked like from 28 feet … but I didn’t think he would get that clean of a look.

“I couldn’t believe when that horn blew. It was like, ‘Did we really just win this game?’ It was one of those feelings like, ‘Are you serious?’ “

It was, as was the realization players like Low, Weaver and Cowgill would never play in Pullman again.

“These guys had to scrap and fight for everything, that’s the way it’s been the last four years, five years since we’ve been here,” Bennett said if the final game was a mirror of the seniors’ careers. “Nothing has been easy, even when we’ve been successful. How many close games have we been in?

“It probably is fitting.”

Washington State 76, Washington 73 (2OT)

Percentages: FG .434, FT .700. 3-Point Goals: 5-13, .385 (Appleby 4-10, Wolfinger 1-2, Dentmon 0-1). Team Rebounds: 6. Blocked Shots: 2 (Brockman, Morris). Turnovers: 22 (Overton 5, Brockman 4, Dentmon 3, Pondexter 3, TEAM 3, Bryan-Amaning 2, Morris, Appleby). Steals: 6 (Pondexter 2, Overton, Morris, Appleby, Bryan-Amaning). Technical Fouls: None.

Percentages: FG .455, FT .655. 3-Point Goals: 7-19, .368 (Rochestie 4-8, Low 2-6, Weaver 1-4, Harmeling 0-1). Team Rebounds: 4. Blocked Shots: 2 (Cowgill 2). Turnovers: 15 (Weaver 5, Baynes 4, Low 3, Rochestie 3). Steals: 6 (Low 2, Weaver 2, Rochestie, Baynes). Technical Fouls: None.

Halftime—Washington State 30, Washington 26. Regulation—Washington 58, Washington State 58. First Overtime—Washington 67, Washington State 67. A—10,630.