Washington State-Stanford: Cardinal Upend Cougars in OT

For the first time since Coach Tony Bennett took over the reins of the Cougar basketball program, WSU has gone down to defeat two games in a row.

If that isn’t a big enough shocker, both of those loses are at home on Friel Court. The No. 9 ranked Cougs fell to No. 14 Stanford 67-65 in overtime Saturday night.

The Cougs got off to a very nice start in the first half, leading at the break by a score of 26-21. It was one of their best efforts of the season. For whatever reason, WSU has been getting off to slow starts against good teams.

Stanford proved that they are as good as anyone. Maybe better.

 Things weren’t that different for the Cougs in the second half. They were up by six points with about five minutes left in the game. Seniors Kyle Weaver and Derrick Low played at the top of their game.

In fact, Weaver had a career high 23 points before fouling out with 5 seconds left in the overtime period. Low added another 19 with some solid play in the second half on the offensive end of the court.

So how did Stanford win?

If you were going to guess the Lopez twins, you’d be correct.

Though the tenacious double team defense of WSU forced Brook Lopez to shot a pathetic 4-16 from the floor, he was a brilliant 10-12 from the free throw line for a total of 18 points. Brook blocked five shots and forced countless Cougar attempts to miss in close because of intimidation.

His brother Robin was a perfect 3-3 from the field and played outstanding defense. Between the two of them, they took Aron Baynes out of the game by forcing him into foul trouble. In 45 minutes of play (40 plus the 5 in overtime), Baynes was only on the floor a total of 15 minutes.

The Cardinal defense truly got the job done, holding the Cougs to a miserable 35 percent shooting from the field for the game. Ridiculous defense! But WSU had an answer for Stanford’s tough D. They created opportunity after opportunity for themselves by causing 17 Cardinal turnovers.

Washington State only turned the ball over 4 times in the game. Four total turnovers.  Ridiculous.

This contest turned out to be one of those games where it’s a shame either team had to lose. Actually, neither team did. When Taylor Rochestie missed a layup just before the final buzzer to send the game into a second overtime, the verdict was in. Stanford won.

With the victory, Stanford stays close to UCLA for the conference lead. Washington State is probably out of the hunt now for a Pac-10 crown.

The packed house in Pullman was treated to a great college basketball game. Stanford did the trick by winning the game.

Now that the northern California teams have escaped Pullman with hard earned victories, WSU hosts the southern California teams next week.

GO COUGS!!!