Big second half lifts WSU to seventh straight win, beating Stanford 72-59

Make it seven in a row and 10 of their last 11 for the Wheatfield Underdogs.

The Washington State Cougars used a big second half to catapult themselves past the Stanford Cardinal to grab their seventh straight victory 72-59.

WSU (20-6, 11-4 in Pac-12) outscored Stanford (12-13, 7-8) 37-23 in the second half after surrendering 20-9 run, and the lead, to the end first half. Jaylen Wells and Isaac Jones each racked up a game-high 15 points, while Oscar Cluff locked things down on defense with three blocks and three steals.

“It’s just all piecing together right now. The team is just playing defense together so well.” Cluff said.

28 days ago, the Cougars sat dejected after failing to closeout the California Golden Bears to complete a weekend sweep in the Bay Area and watched their tournament chances take a huge hit. From talks of “season over” to pleas of “Pack Beasley” within four weeks. While there is still plenty of basketball left and still more work to do, this past month has been one of the most memorable in recent WSU memory.

“Right now, this is the best team we’ve had in five years.” Kyle Smith said.

With an energetic crowd on hand, WSU used a trio of runs to kickstart the game. After Stanford jumped out in front with a 7-2 lead, Cluff and Jones teamed up for a 7-0 run with Jones scoring a pair inside to give WSU the two point lead. The Jones’ buckets were also good for his 1000th and 1001st career points.

James Keefe interrupted the run with his own inside bucket, but Andrej Jakimovski answered with a trey and Kymany Houinsou also cashed in a rare triple to give WSU the lead back. Yet again, Keefe played spoiler with another run ender and WSU answered with another 6-0 run, grabbing four of those six at the charity stripe, to lead by 10.

The Cardinal began exposing the WSU defense with defensive lapses leading to open treys and lanes opening up inside allowing the Cardinal to get to the rim. Suddenly, WSU’s 10-point lead had dwindled all the way down on a game tying and-one from Brandon Angel. Soon after, Spencer Jones cashed a trey to hand Stanford the lead before the halftime break.

While the teams traded buckets — and the one point lead — to begin the half, it was Stanford who gained the early advantage with a 6-0 run off back-to-back and-ones to take their highest lead of the game at five.

WSU’s star guard Myles Rice had a rare off first half. The freshman hit just one of his five attempts from the field and turned the ball over three times. If WSU was going to make a rally in this one, they would need their phenom to come through again. With the tension in Beasley at its highest, Rice cashed in his first trey of the day to pull within two and splashed another a minute later to retake the lead for WSU and wake up the Beasley crowd. He capped off the personal 8-0 with a pair of free throws on the next possession.

Maxime Raynaud answered the Rice treys with back-to-back buckets inside to give the lead back to Stanford. After Jaylen Wells and Michael Jones traded buckets, Jakimvoski gave WSU the lead back with a trey that sparked a huge run for WSU.

Jones, Cluff and Rice each attacked the interior for buckets and Jones put the exclamation point on WSU’s 11-0 killshot run with a thundering dunk to send Beasley into a frenzy.

The 11-0 run spanned over four minutes as WSU’s defense held the Cardinal off the scoreboard for six and a half minutes, forcing a trio of turnovers. While Stanford was finally able to score and break up the run thanks to Kannan Carlyle, Jakimovski dealt the dagger with a trey and layup to push WSU’s lead up to 13. The senior had missed a few shots early, but came up clutch when WSU needed him most.

“Andrej really is kind of the glue. He’s our captain, he’s a fourth-year guy, he’s been through these wars, you can tell I wasn’t worried about him.” Smith said.

“I was just trying to make the right play every time and at the end, I made some big ones. That’s what it’s going to take to win the games.” Jakimovski said.

The weekend sweep of the Bay Area schools now sets up the biggest game of the Pac-12 season on Thursday night as WSU travels to Tucson to play the Wildcats in what may determine the regular season conference title. An amazing feat by this team to even put themselves in position after many had declared them dead just four weeks ago.