Another game, another loss for the Washington State Cougars. This time, it came against the only team WSU has beaten in Pac-12 play, UCLA. The Cougars struggled to do anything offensively in the first half, hitting just 7 of 25 shots and turning the ball over 10 times. That gave the Bruins, who weren't playing well themselves, the chance to build a double-digit lead. WSU couldn't do any better in the second half, and fell 83-50.
Overall, the Cougs gave it away 18 times, made just 13 of 30 2-pointers and 5 of 24 3-pointers and finished with less than 0.70 points per possession.. But hey, they knocked down 9 of 12 free throws. That's pretty solid!
Foul trouble on Josh Hawkinson didn't help WSU's cause in the first half. Hawkinson didn't score until the game was already out of hand late in the second half, finishing with just seven points and six rebounds in 25 minutes. In the big man's absence, Ike Iroegbu seemed at times to look to do even more than he has lately, forcing a number of deep looks that weren't falling. The junior guard finished with a team-high 16 points on 6 for 16 from the floor.
Que Johnson was the only other Cougar in double figures, with 12 points, including 3 of 7 from 3-point range.
With the offense struggling, the WSU defense just couldn't hang. UCLA was limited around one point per possession in the first half, a relatively good mark for the Cougs. But the Bruins shot the ball much better in the final 20 minutes, led by 15 second-half points from Isaac Hamilton. He finished with a game-high 22 points overall.
In case you weren't counting, that makes seven-straight losses for the Cougars. Arizona comes to town on Thursday, so number eight is looking likely.