WSU vs. Arizona final score: Wildcats dispose of overmatched Cougars, 90-66

Well, at least it wasn't as bad as the last time Washington State visited Tucson.

It was still pretty bad, though, as the No. 18 Arizona Wildcats sent the Cougars home winless from the desert with a 90-66 beatdown that was pretty typical of WSU visits to McKale Center over the years. In 2014 -- Ken Bone's final season -- Arizona beat WSU 60-25.

That game was a disaster from a beginning, but as WSU has done so often this year, the Cougars were able to maintain contact for a while with a more talented team; they were down just six points with under four minutes to go in the first half.

Then it got out of hand.

Arizona closed the half on a 14-5 run keyed by a trio of 3-pointers to take a 15-point lead into the locker room. The Wildcats didn't let up from there, opening the second half on a 10-2 run. All told, Arizona outscored WSU 24-7 over a six-minute period to open up a 21-point margin and turn it into a laugher.

The first half was frustrating in so much as it was an unusually hot shooting performance that provided the margin -- Arizona hit 7 of 10 shots from beyond the arc to fuel a blistering 1.31 points-per-possession pace. Particularly lethal was diminutive point guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright, who hit three of them on just four attempts.

Jackson-Cartwright finished with 13 points, one of six Wildcats to score in double figures -- and Kadeem Allen, who scored 9 points, nearly made it seven.

For the second consecutive game, Josh Hawkinson had a rough go of it out of the gate. The Cougars' best player again was stifled in the first half, scoring just 6 points on 3 of 7 shooting as WSU again fell behind by double digits after the first 20 minutes.

Unlike Thursday night, Hawkinson never was able to recover, as he would score just 12 points on 6-of-12 shooting without ever getting to the free throw line. To make things worse, Hawkinson could only grab 8 rebounds, ending his double-double streak at 11.

Ike Iroegbu led the Cougars with 13 points, but five turnovers mitigated his offensive contributions -- WSU again struggled with turnovers, giving it away on 20 percent of possessions in the first half as the Cougs fell behind. Charles Callison chipped in 12 points.

The Cougars fall to 1-4 in Pac-12 play with Utah and Colorado coming to Pullman this week.