No. 21 WSU’s winning streak comes to end, falling to ASU 73-61

All good things must come to an end eventually.

The nation’s fifth longest winning streak of eight games came to an end on Saturday night as the Arizona State Sun Devils knocked off the No. 21 Washington State Cougars 73-61.

The loss now drops WSU (21-7, 12-5 in Pac-12) back under the Arizona Wildcats for the top spot in the Pac-12 standings after the Wildcats took care of the Washington Huskies earlier in the day. After a rough first half, WSU launched themselves back into the game with a kill shot run to take their first lead since they led 4-2. But ultimately, turnovers, a lack of offense and ASU (14-14, 8-9) hitting 49.2% of their shots from the field doomed the Cougars in the second half. ASU outscored WSU 37-23 after WSU’s go-ahead run.

It’s a frustrating loss after one of the best wins in program history that severely raised WSU’s March dreams from if they could make it to the dance, to just how far can they go. Ultimately, they will be fine and even before the win over Arizona, this had trap game written all over it.

ASU seized momentum early on with a 13-0 run to grab the lead. For the remainder of the half, WSU had to go into catchup mode but ASU refused to surrender the lead, having an answer for each punch the Cougs threw at them. A 12-1 run kicked off by an Isaac Jones layup, followed by a pair of threes from Isaiah Watts and Thursday’s hero Jaylen Watts. The run was interrupted by a free throw from Jose Perez, but resumed with back-to-back layups from Myles Rice, the last one counting via an ASU goaltending.

With momentum hanging in the balance, ASU fought back matching nearly every WSU bucket down the stretch with a pair of their own to extend their lead out to nine. Jones reduced the lead down to seven on WSU’s final possession of the first half.

The Cougars came roaring out of the halftime break. Their defense stood tall, holding ASU off the scoreboard for nearly five minutes while the offense worked on cutting into the lead. Jones started things off with a pair of free throws and Kymany Houinsou scored inside off a pass from a driving Rice to cut it down to three. After an ASU miss, Rice flew past the Sun Devil defense, splitting a pair of defenders to get inside for a bucket to make it a one point game. An ASU timeout couldn’t slow down Rice, who again blew past the defense for a tough layup and drawing the foul for an and-one to put WSU ahead.

Despite holding now all the momentum and the strong contingent of Cougs loudly make their presence known, ASU had an answer for WSU’s 11-0 run. Alonzo Gaffney scored on back-to-back possessions after a WSU turnover to swing the lead back to the maroon and yellow. Frankie Collins made it a 7-0 run with a trey that forced Kyle Smith to call a timeout to try and slow down the Sun Devils.

But like the early goings of the first half, ASU started to answer each WSU bucket with two of their own. Down by seven, WSU clawed their way back thanks to Wells being fouled on a three-point attempt for a trio of charity stripe shots. Wells cashed all three and Jones made it a 5-0 run with a bucket inside to return the game back within a possession. After trading 4-0 runs, ASU threw their hardest haymaker of the night that proved to be the knockout blow. A 9-0 run from the 5:36-2:45 mark turned a one possession game into a double-digit lead for the Sun Devils. The Cougars wouldn’t be able to recover and watched their eight game win streak disappear.

If WSU was going to split this road trip, this was always the preferred way of doing so. Getting the massive win in Tucson to all but clinch your tournament spot trumps any damage the ASU loss does to your resume. Let it be reiterated that it is extremely hard to win on the road anywhere. That’s what makes WSU’s sweep of Arizona so impressive. These losses happen to every team. The consensus number one team in the nation got walloped on the road by Creighton just earlier this week. Don’t let the stench of tough loss on the road distract you from what was one of the more successful weekends in recent memory. WSU is going to be just fine.

And the good news is the Cougars get to return back to what needs to be a packed Beasley Coliseum for their final three games beginning with the USC Trojans on Thursday, February 29th.