The Cougars now improve to 12-1 on Friel Court.
The Washington State Cougars extended their winning streak to six — tying a season-high — with a 84-65 blowout win over the California Golden Bears.
Myles Rice led the way with a game high 25 points for WSU (19-6, 10-4 in Pac-12) and Isaac Jones scored 21 with nine rebounds. The Cougars also get sweet vengeance for their last loss to this same Cal (10-15, 6-8) team 26 days ago.
Neither offense came out setting the nets ablaze, combining to hit just three of the first combined 16 shots of the game and quartet of turnovers to boot. WSU eventually found a bit of a rhythm with their first run of the game being a 10-0 kill shot to get up 10-2. The Golden Bears answered quick with a Rodney Brown Jr. trey 11 seconds after the Rueben Chinyelu dunk to cap the Cougar run. The Brown triple sparked an 8-0 Cal run to knot the game up at 10.
While runs were the story to open the first nine minutes of play, neither team could string together a pair of buckets over the next seven minutes with WSU holding a narrow lead thanks to a few three-pointers compared to Cal’s twos. Eventually, the Cougars broke through with a Andrej Jakimovski three and a Rice steal and fastbreak layup for the games first run in over seven minutes that extended WSU’s lead to eight. Jalen Celestine halted the run with a trey, but Isaac Jones sparked another WSU run with an and-one. After Cal came up empty on the ensuing possession, missing a contested layup at the rim, Cal’s coach Mark Madsen was assessed a technical foul for arguing with the ref. Rice knocked down both technical free throws and Jones capped off the run at 7-0 with another bucket inside.
Cal answered with a layup with 11 seconds to go, but Rice capped off the half with a floater that bounced off the rim and took the home bounce into the bottom of the net, giving WSU a 12 point halftime lead.
The energy in Beasley could be felt through your television in the second half as although Cal came out hitting three of their first four shots to pull the deficit to 10, Rice ignited an 8-0 run with a trey, passed the torch with an assist to Chinyelu on a fast break he started and Jones capped it off with another and-one.
Wazzu comes out firing! The Cougs have dialed up the intensity as Rueben throws down the transition flush and Rice buries a couple triples. Isaac Jones with an and-1. WSU up big!#GoCougs // #CVE // @Pac12Network pic.twitter.com/ZIsVthHAJC
— Washington State Men’s Basketball (@WSUCougarsMBB) February 16, 2024
Jaylon Tyson disrupted the run with a bucket, but Rice again got the Beasley crowd roaring with a nifty move inside to get the reverse layup against traffic and later, a deep trey to push the lead to 19.
Myles Rice is unconscious! He’s got 13 second-half points, a perfect 5 of 5 from the floor with three 3-pointers. He’s 6th 20-point game of the year.#GoCougs // #CVE // @Pac12Network pic.twitter.com/HhyIfYlo3w
— Washington State Men’s Basketball (@WSUCougarsMBB) February 16, 2024
Jones kept the energy rolling with yet another and-one and two more ridiculous finishes to get WSU into 20-point lead territory. All throughout the game, it seemed every time Jones went up, that ball was finding the net no matter how tough the interior Golden Bear defense made it.
Isaac Jones with another finish and the whistle! He puts the Cougs up 20 with 10 minutes to play.#GoCougs // #CVE // @Pac12Network pic.twitter.com/UM27DsnPjP
— Washington State Men’s Basketball (@WSUCougarsMBB) February 16, 2024
With the large lead, WSU was able to enter cruise control for the final nine minutes, never letting Cal break back within 17, but never going up by more than 22 for their 10th conference win of the season.
WSU will hope to keep the good times rolling when they welcome in the Stanford Cardinal on Saturday with what is expected to be a good crowd on hand in Beasley Coliseum.
