Washington ruins Pullman party, upsetting No. 18 Washington State 74-68

A brutal shooting night from Wazzu ends their Pac-12 regular season champion dreams.

In one of the most anticipated games in recent memory, the No. 18 Washington State Cougars fell flat against their cross-state rival Washington Huskies, losing 74-68 in the regular season finale.

A crushing loss for a WSU (23-8, 14-6 in Pac-12) team that entered the night hoping to celebrate a Pac-12 regular season title with a win and an Arizona loss. Even if Arizona won their game, winning over UW (17-14, 9-11) to set program highs in conference and home wins would be worth a big celebration. Neither of those happened tonight. Instead, WSU shot a miserable 16.7% from three and made only 8/17 free throw shots. Myles Rice and Jaylen Wells combined for 17 points on 5/22 shooting while UW’s duo of Koren Johnson and Keion Brooks Jr. tallied 45 points.

The loss also doesn’t help WSU’s chances of grabbing a high seed in the NCAA Tournament and playing their opening round games in Spokane.

You could see the excitement, and a little bit of nerves, in WSU’s game early as they fired off some uncharacteristic shots and airballed a handful of them. UW capitalized on the mistakes from WSU to the tune of a 9-0 run for an early seven point lead. Once WSU finally began to settle down, they threw a haymaker. Isaac Jones and Oscar Cluff kicked things off with each scoring from short range to cut the lead to two. On UW’s next possession, Isaiah Watts jumped a pass and took it all the way for a game tying slam.

Jones knocked down another jumper and Watts again scored on a fastbreak slam to cap a 10-0 killshot run for WSU. Wilhelm Breinbach briefly interrupted WSU’s momentum with a layup, but WSU pushed the lead out to seven with a 5-0 run and followed it up with a 6-2 run for a commanding 10 point lead with 2:16 remaining in the half.

At this point, the 9,311 in attendance looked like they were on their way to a beatdown and a party on the Palouse. But in the blink of an eye, UW ripped off their own kill shot run, scoring 12 unanswered in the final two minutes to steal the halftime lead away. A stunning result from a team that had finished halves strong all year long.

The second half was the battle we all envisioned. 12 lead changes in 12 minutes, a heavyweight fight with each throwing their best jabs and letting each other know about it. You know, the kind of entertaining games regional rivalries with big conference implications creates.

But as the game began to enter crunch time, WSU started to unravel. Easy missed shots from close and outside and a few bad turnovers helped UW put together their second killshot run of the game to build a lead that really began to put the pressure on WSU. With their backs against the wall, the Cougs fought back with a 5-0 run to revive the Beasley Coliseum crowd and make it a three point game.

This is when making your free throws becomes vitally important. WSU had chances to break within a possession with charity stripe shots on three of four possessions, and came away with just two of six shots tickling the twine.

Still, somehow, only down by four with a 1:31 left, the Cougs could not stop Johnson, who delivered the dagger with a three to put the Huskies up seven and twisted it with four more points in a row.

Instead of the sea of crimson shirts streaming onto the court, it was the guys in purple and gold stomping on the Cougar logo as the fans instead streamed for the exits. Hopes of one last crimson and gray banner reading Pac-12 champions, crushed by an old enemy that plays the all too familiar role of party crasher one last time.

The Cougars will be a two seed in the Pac-12 tournament. Which is still an incredible accomplishment for a team picked to finish eight spots lower in the preseason polls. But for tonight, it’s heartbreaking that they won’t be able to cling to hopes of a championship banner into the weekend.

WSU will play the winner of the 7/10 seed game in Las Vegas on Thursday, March 14th, at 6pm.