Rivals Washington and Washington State aim to halt losing streaks when the Apple Cup rivals meet in a home-and-home series starting Wednesday night in Pullman, Wash.
They face each other again Saturday afternoon in Seattle.
The Huskies (13-12, 8-7 Pac-12) have lost three straight games by an average of 20 points, while the Cougars (14-12, 7-8) have dropped five consecutive contests with three of the setbacks coming by one possession.
Sunday’s 62-60 road loss at then-No. 17 Southern California was especially painful for the Cougars. Washington State led by six with under six minutes remaining and eventually lost when the Trojans’ Boogie Ellis drained the tie-breaking jumper with 0.2 seconds remaining.
“We had to make some shots and just had poor execution against the zone late,” Washington State coach Kyle Smith said. “I know we played hard, we battled and we made some shots, but it’s kind of a wasted effort.”
The Cougars made a season-high 15 3-pointers — in 31 attempts — but were brutally poor inside the arc, making just 5 of 32 shots (15.6 percent).
The Huskies have not been involved in any close calls lately. In their trip to Los Angeles, they lost to USC by 10, and then UCLA blew them out 76-50 on Saturday in Los Angeles. It was the second loss by more than 20 points in a three-game span — the other was a 92-68 home loss against then-No. 4 Arizona on Feb. 12.
Jamal Bey had 12 points and a season-best 11 rebounds for his first career double-double, and he is hoping the one-sided loss against UCLA will shake up his team.
“This was a great opportunity for us to see where we’re at and to see what we need to work on and what we need to get better at,” Bey said. “It was a good thing for us. We needed this. We needed this beat down to wake us up.”
Terrell Brown Jr., who leads the Pac-12 with a scoring average of 21.8 points per game, had only 13 points against UCLA on 5 of 17 shooting. Brown has scored 20 or more points on 15 occasions this season.
The Huskies could be without second-leading scorer Emmitt Matthews Jr. (11.3 points per game) after he suffered a concussion against UCLA. Also, starting guard Daejon Davis, who has missed four games with a shoulder injury, is still considered day-to-day, Hopkins said Monday.
Michael Flowers leads Washington State with a 13.4 points per game scoring average, although he’s hit that mark only once in the past four games – a 23-point effort against Oregon. The Cougars could be without guard TJ Bamba (knee) for the third straight game.
Washington State is 3-1 against Washington in Smith’s two-plus seasons as coach. That follows a stretch in which the Huskies won 14 of 18 meetings.
–Field Level Media
