WSU outlasts stubborn Portland State

PULLMAN – Sunday night was special for Washington State junior center Aron Baynes. Not only were the undefeated Cougars hosting Portland State in a non-conference game at Beasley Coliseum, it was also his 21st birthday.

Presents were required. And they were delivered.

They came in the form of assists, wrapped like so many gift cards from Kyle Weaver, Taylor Rochestie and the rest of his WSU teammates.

And Baynes cashed them in, slamming home six thunderous dunks en route to a season-high 23 points as the eighth-ranked Cougars held off the Vikings 72-60 before a sparse-looking, pre-finals crowd of 7,048.

“There weren’t a lot of high-degree-of-difficulty shots,” WSU coach Tony Bennett said, smiling for one of the few times all night.

Baynes agreed.

“The guys got me open and all I had to do was finish them,” said Baynes, who also added three post moves in a 9-for-9 night from the floor. But he was more than just an offensive presence.

He also led WSU with nine rebounds, though the taller Cougars had just a 25-24 edge on the boards. That total didn’t please Bennett, who critiqued the Cougars’ rebounding effort. He did, however, spare Baynes.

“Aron established himself,” Bennett said of the 6-foot-10, 270-pound Aussie. “Aron, he clears out space and he goes up, that really saved us. When he was out of the game it was really hard for us on the glass.”

The Cougars (9-0) had enough trouble to go around, some supplied by the Vikings (6-4, including a 21-point loss at UCLA to open the season) and guard Deonte Huff (18 points, five rebounds) and 5-6 Jeremiah Dominguez (15 points, three assists).

But most of the difficulty was supplied by the Cougars themselves. Their giving didn’t stop with passes to Baynes.

“You’re not going to play perfect when people are all over you, guarding you, and you make an aggressive play,” Bennett said of WSU’s season-high 17 turnovers, many unforced errors. “But when guys just aren’t on the same page, those are things there isn’t much of an excuse for and we have to clean those up if you want to be successful.

“When we turn the ball over that much, and we give up that many offensive rebounds (11), it will be over quick against teams in our league.”

“A lot of them were miscommunication; not being on the same page,” said Weaver, who had five turnovers, second to Rochestie’s season-worse eight. “As players, we almost need these games, to try to learn from them and just jell a little better.”

The Cougars jelled often enough to shoot 77 percent inside the arc (a season-high 65 percent overall), thanks in large part to the guards’ penetration.

“When we got into the lane, they were making, for the most part, the right reads,” Bennett said. “We did have 17 assists.”

One guy who got in the lane often was Nikola Koprivica, who still isn’t, as he says, “Nik from last year,” coming back as he is from a torn ACL in his knee. But he was good enough to tie his career high with 12 points on 5 of 6 shooting. That total included his first 3-pointer of the season after 12 misses.

“I feel much better,” the sophomore from Serbia said. “I feel it was, ah, it’s about time.”

Koprivica came off the bench with WSU trailing 12-8 early on and ignited the Cougars’ first run, a 9-4 stretch that gave them a one-point edge. But five WSU turnovers in seven possessions helped the Vikings pull back ahead.

And that’s the way it went until the last two minutes of the first half, when PSU missed two 3-pointers and turned it over twice – the Vikings were 9 of 25 beyond the arc and had 16 turnovers of their own – to help ignite an 8-0 WSU run.

Still Portland pulled to within two early in the second half before Rochestie hit his first shot of the night – a 3-pointer – and Baynes followed a Robbie Cowgill miss with a dunk for a 42-35 lead. The Vikings never got closer than four again.

With the win, the Cougars can head to an 11-day basketball respite – finals start this morning – with a little momentum.

“It’s good to have two days off,” Bennett said of the break from practice his team is taking. “Our guys are pretty tired. Ya, 11 days, it’s quite a while, but we go to Seattle for our next game (vs. The Citadel) and there will be some excitement.”

But not as much as Baynes had on his birthday. On the court at least. When asked what he had planned for the rest of the evening, Baynes laughed.

“No, I’m just having a quiet one,” he said.

After all, he already opened his presents.

WSU 72, Portland St. 60

Percentages: FG .407. FT .700. 3-Point Goals: 9-25, ..360 (Mara 0-3, Huff 2-4, Dominguez 3-7. Lucas 1-3, Pollis 1-1, Coston 1-4, Tiefenthaler 1-3) Team Rebounds: 5. Blocked Shots: 0. Turnovers: 16 (Mara 2, Morrison, Huff 3, Dominguez 2, Lucas 5, Polis, Moore, Team) Steals: 8 (Huff 4, Dominguez, Lucas 2, Tiefenthaler). Technical Fouls: None.

Percentages: FG .650, FT .739. 3-Point Goals: 3-10, .300 (Low 0-4, Rochestie 1-1, Weaver 0-1, Koprivica 2-2, Harmeling 0-2). Team Rebounds: 1. Blocked Shots: 4 (Cowgill, Baynes 2, Weaver). Turnovers: 17 (Baynes, Low, Rochestie 8, Weaver 5, Koprivica, Harmeling). Steals: 6 (Weaver 5, Koprivica). Technical Fouls: None. Halftime– Washington St. 35, Portland St. 28. A–7,048.

Cougars women lose

Washington State saw a 16-point lead 5 1/2 minutes into the second half evaporate and the Cougars dropped a 71-64 non-conference decision to visiting Boise State.

The Cougars (2-5) expanded a 37-26 lead early in the second half before the Broncos (5-3) charged from behind aided by converting 18 of 26 second-half free throws. They finished 25 of 39 to 11 of 14 for WSU, which had a 24-20 margin in field goals.

Junior Katie Appleton led WSU with a game-high 22 points, but no other Cougar was in double figures, and three, including two starters, fouled out. Boise had three in double figures led by Jessica Thompson’s 17. Tasha Harris had 15and a game-high 13 rebounds.