No. 21 Washington State overtakes No.4 Arizona for best in Pac with 77-74 thriller

Your Washington State Cougars, alone in first in the Pac-12.

134 days ago, the Pac-12 released their preseason media poll. The Arizona Wildcats led the way as the favorite to claim the Pac-12 title, while your Washington State Cougars — who had been shunned away from the power conference scene — were predicted to finish 10th. Those same Cougars just went into Arizona and knocked off the No.4 team in the country 77-74 to claim first place in the Pac-12 for themselves.

Since 2022, Arizona (20-6, 11-4 in Pac-12) have only lost three times in Tucson. Once to Arizona State, and now twice WSU (21-6, 12-4). The team who had been picked to finish near the bottom of the conference and had been relegated away from power conferences for being too far away from a large media market now leads one of the most competitive conferences in college basketball, ahead of the team who has been picked by some as their favorite to win the national championship.

Over the past couple of seasons, Kyle Smith has taken a lot of heat for not finishing seasons on a high note, for not getting his team to the tournament when some outlets thought of the team as a potential dark horse. Now, his team is just a handful of games away from grabbing WSU’s first outright regular season Pac-12 title since 1941 in it’s final iteration.

Despite the late tipoff time, McKale Center was rocking for the second top-25 meeting in series history between the Cougs and ‘Cats. The noise in the arena got to WSU early, who failed to read the winding shot clock and were forced to fire off an air ball at the buzzer. Arizona rode the noise to a 4-0 lead before a Rice mid-range jumper calming the crowd into their seats. WSU grabbed their first lead of the game on back-to-back Rueben Chinyelu buckets inside. Oscar Cluff got the start for WSU, but the Wildcats frontcourt proved to be a bit of a mismatch for the big fella. In his place, Chinyelu had an outstanding first half, scoring eight points, grabbing five rebounds and recording a +14 in the +/- column.

On the perimeter, Jaylen Wells paced WSU’s offense with a trio of treys to burn the Arizona defense for a game-high 13 first half points.

Defensively, the Cougars were able to hold one of the best offenses in the nation at bay, forcing eight turnovers and holding the Wildcats to just 20% from beyond the arc. Part of the Cougars success was limiting Arizona’s interior offense as Oumar Ballo could only score four points and turned the ball over twice.

After grabbing that early lead at the 16:21, WSU didn’t relinquish the lead until a Caleb Love three to cap a 9-1 Wildcat run with 42 ticks remaining. In their final possession of the half, a foul sent Andrej Jakimovski to the line for a pair to give WSU the narrow one point lead heading into the half.

With a packed McKale Center behind them, the Wildcats were able to takeover the early part of the second half. Though WSU got out to a four point lead, Arizona used a pair of dunks to get the crowd roaring and capped off the run with a pair of free throws to take a two point lead.

As Arizona extended the lead and the crowd poured it on like a Pullman snowstorm, the Cougars kept their poise. When others teams had fallen victim to the raucous environment McKale creates, WSU held tough.

Isaac Jones awakened from his first half slumber to torch the Wildcats interior defense. The senior from Spanaway, Washington erupted for a personal 8-0 to give WSU the five point lead.

This game lived up to the billing for the remainder of the half. The two best teams in the Pac-12 conference throwing body blows, fighting for the heavyweight title of the regular season championship. One team gaining momentum only for it to be handed back to the other.

As the clock began to wind, the body blows turned into haymakers. WSU stepped up first with a hard right hook in the form of a deep three from Wells to put WSU up four. Coming out of the timeout, Arizona responded with a thundering ally-oop to Oumar Ballo to bring it back within two. Love then hit WSU with the left hook with his own three to push the Wildcats ahead by one.

Jones and Ballo traded free throws, but Jones having the edge cashing both of his compared to Ballo’s one of two. With the game tied, Wells again came through for WSU with a little fadeaway to put WSU up two. As they have all game long, Arizona quickly responded with their own short jumper from Keshad Johnson to keep the game tied with 1:31 to go.

Things really began to look bleak for WSU as Love’s layup turned into an and-one that put Arizona up three with 51 seconds remaining.

At this point, thoughts began to shift for probably a majority of WSU fans. Thoughts of an upset likely turned into well at least we hung in tough with a team that is expected to hang for a national championship.

As for WSU’s bench, they likely had very opposite thoughts. They wanted this. They wanted to prove to the world that they belonged with the very best in nation.

On WSU’s potential game-tying possession, Rice fired off a game-tying trey that just missed. In a nod to the 2013 NBA Finals, the ball floated in the air and was tipped around, Jakimovski reeled in the rebound and tossed it out to an open Wells. His three-pointer, bang. Not only did his three cash for a three, Wells was fouled on the play for a four-point play.

With a chance to take the lead, Wells cashed in his free throw to put WSU ahead 75-74. With a chance to tie, Love tried to drive to the drive, but was swatted way by Jones. On their second chance, Love got another chance to tie it, but slipped on his drive to the rim for a travel call that gave possession to WSU.

After a foul sent Wells back to the line, the JUCO transfer calmly knocked down both of his free throws to give WSU a three-point lead. The desperation heave fell short and the Cougar bench streamed onto the court to celebrate their sweep of the No. 4 Wildcats.

Let it be reiterated: this was a team that was left for dead by billionaire executives who wanted to line their pockets, and believed that their best solution was adding a program that has now been swept by a team from the middle of nowhere. And that team, who was supposed to regress, and finish near the bottom of the conference that they had been relegated to hold until everyone else could find their own life raft?

Is now in first place.

The rest of the nation expected a team full of ‘scraps’ pulled together by Smith to roll over and bend the knee to the ‘elites’ of the conference. Instead, this team has chosen to the play to their fullest potential and fight back.

Not only have they fought back, but they have proven to be the premier team of the Pac-12. There is no debating anymore, Washington State is the best team in the Pac-12.

Let it be known loud and clear, the Washington State Cougars will not be forgotten in the college sports landscape. As much as the guys in suits may try to shut us down and forbid us to play with the “big boys”, WSU is as much of a competitor as anybody. The team that resides out in the middle of a bunch of wheat fields can still produce one of the best teams, not only in their “respective conferences”, but in the nation.

Washington State University can still, and will always, be a competitor in every asset of life no matter how much the world may try and shut us down.

WSU will look to extend their win streak against the Arizona State Sun Devils tomorrow, 2/24, at 5pm PT on ESPN.