JacketsOnline.com - Cardinal Shoot Lights Out Against Cougs

February 5, 2009

CougZone News Services
WazzuWatch.com

It only took two players to beat the Washington State University men's basketball team on Thursday evening - their names are Lawrence Hill and Will Paul. The two Cardinal players combined for 31 points and a nearly perfect 12-for-14 field goal shooting night as Stanford shot 69% from beyond the arc and blew past the Cougars in the second half for a 65-54 victory over the Cougars in Palo Alto. With the loss, WSU drops to 12-10 overall and 4-6 in conference play.

Freshman guard Klay Thompson led the Cougars in scoring, with 18 points while senior center Aron Baynes was the only other Cougar able to get into double figures with 16 points.

The first half opened ominously with the Cougars fouling Stanford's Hill and Hill converting on his two free throws. But Wazzu responded with nine consecutive points on buckets by freshmen DeAngelo Casto and Klay Thompson along with a trey from senior Daven Harmeling Stanford closed the gap to four at 11-7 with 13:46 left in the half.

Coming out of the timeout, senior Caleb Forrest and Thompson hit two more baskets to increase Wazzu's lead to 15-7. After a bucket by senior center Aron Baynes, the Cardinal once again closed the gap to four points at 17-13 at the 10:45 mark. Once again, Stanford closed the gap to two at 17-15 but a three-ball from Thompson increased it back up to five with 8:12 left in the half.

Once again, Stanford closed the gap, this time to a single digit at 21-20, but Thompson hit a trey and junior Nikola Koprivica hit his first bucket of the game sandwiched around a Cardinal basket to extend the lead back to four at 26-22 with 3:58 left in the half. But from there, the Cougars were only able to muster two more points as Stanford scored seven straight points to take their first lead of the game and held onto it for a 29-28 lead going into the locker room. Hill and Paul combined to go a perfect 6-for-6 from the field for 17 points in the half while Thompson led the Cougars with 10 at the break.

Hill came out came out of halftime still on fire and hit his first two buckets as the Cardinal extended their lead to four at 36-32 with 17:02 remaining in the game. Hill finally missed a shot but Paul remained perfect as Stanford built their lead to 10 points before senior Taylor Rochestie stemmed the tide with a trey to cut the Cardinal lead to 48-41 with 11:15 left in the game. But the Cardinal rolled the lead back out to double digits at 53-43 on a three-ball from Hill and the Cougars could never get closer than nine points the rest of the way.

Wazzu's next game is against California at 7:30 pm on Saturday, February 7 in Berkeley.

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