Cougs rally isn’t enough, falling to Huskies 81-69

The 298th meeting in the men’s basketball Apple Cup belongs to the Washington Huskies as they took down the Washington State Cougars 81-69.

WSU (1-3) put together a fierce rally late in the second half, but it was still far too little and far too late, failing to overcome a deficit as large as 22. Wesley Yates led all scorers with 26. It’s the third straight win in the series for UW (3-1).

WSU found open shots early on but could not buy a make, converting on just one of their first 12 three-point attempts. The early misses allowed UW to convert on their open looks to build a 10-point lead. After UW passed the double-digit marker, WSU’s open looks finally began to convert. Back-to-back treys from Parker Gerrits and Simon Hildebrandt helped pull WSU right back within four.

Despite WSU’s offense finally finding its groove around the halfway point of the half, they couldn’t break that two-possession barrier UW had. Scoring runs were matched, and even when Adria Rodriguez poked the ball away for a breakaway layup, he dribbled the ball off his foot out of bounds instead. On the other side, it’s not like the Huskies were doing much to help grow their lead. Yates buried a trey to put UW up seven and turned to the WSU bench to let them know about it. One problem for Yates: he did it right in front of a referee who immediately awarded him a technical foul.

The Huskies extended the lead after Yates drilled a deep three with the shot clock expiring to go up eight, and a personal foul on the opposite end of the floor on the next possession sent UW to the free throw line to put the lead at 10 again. UW finished the half on a 6-0 run to give themselves a 14-point lead at the break. They outscored WSU 13-4 over the final four minutes.

Rodriguez kicked off the second half with a nifty pass through the legs of a UW defender to set ND Okafor up for an easy slam at the rim. Unfortunately for the Cougs, that play wouldn’t spark the early second-half run they were looking for. The Huskies quickly rattled off an 11-2 run in the first 2:06 of the second half to push the lead over 20. Emmanuel Ugbo ended the Husky run with a three-pointer from the top of the arc. On top of the big deficit, WSU also would be without both Tomas Thrasteron and Rihards Vavers who left the game with apparent leg injuries.

Just as it seemed UW would cruise the rest of the way, the Cougars crept their way back into it. A 9-0 run anchored by a pair of Ace Glass treys followed up by a 6-0 run brought this game all the way back to within single digits at nine. A hope? A chance.

WSU pulled even closer, answering a Yates two-point jumper with a trey from Eemeli Yalaho to get within eight. That would be as close as WSU would get the rest of the way. UW matched all of WSU’s buckets over the remaining five minutes to keep the Cougars an arm’s length away and secure the 12-point victory.

The Cougars will hope to rebound on Wednesday when they host the Southern Utah Thunderbirds.