Recap: WSU falls apart down the stretch as UW surges to 70-65 win

Behind an avalanche of turnovers and a whole lot of terrible shooting, the Washington State Cougars figured out a way to lose to the Washington Huskies on Saturday in Pullman, 70-65.

The loss dropped WSU to 8-7 overall and 0-3 in Pac-12. It was the Cougs’ seventh loss in the last nine games.

The Cougars turned the ball over 23 times — nearly one third of their possessions — easily a season high; they also posted an effective field goal percentage of just a hair over 46, second-lowest of the season.

And yet, because the Huskies were just as offensively inept (both teams scored less than a point per possession in the game, a paltry figure) and because WSU was unusually effective on the offensive glass (the Cougars rebounded 44 percent of their own misses, by far a season high), the Cougs led for the majority of the game.

Unfortunately, as they did against Kansas State, the Cougars fell apart late.

Things seemed to be heading their way when Jeff Pollard drew a charge on UW’s best offensive player, Noah Dickerson, to foul him out with just over eight minutes to go. WSU led by five at that point.

But from there, Washington gained new life. They took their first lead of the game with 3:26 to go on a pair of David Crisp free throws, but WSU fought right back to take the lead on a Robert Franks jumper. A Pollard layup on a nice feed by Franks — who had corralled an offensive rebound — put the Cougs up by three with 2:18 to play.

WSU didn’t score another point, missing all six of their field goal attempts down the stretch, including a wide open three-pointer by Franks with 10 seconds to go that would have tied it. Franks — who scored 22 points and had 12 rebounds — was 0-for-3 in the final two minutes.

In the end, UW outscored WSU 20-10 after Dickerson fouled out.

WSU’s 0.89 points per game was its second lowest of the season.

Next up? Stanford comes to Beasley Coliseum on Thursday.