Breaking down Washington State's loss to UCLA
Another game where the Cougars were short-handed with the available roster ended in frustration with a 76-52 road loss Saturday to the then-No. 9-ranked UCLA Bruins.
Washington State was once again missing guards DJ Rodman and Dylan Darling, who were both still suffering from an illness. The Cougars (10-15, 5-9 Pac-12) came out a little flat in terms of shooting and couldn’t recover defensively to stop the Bruins.
UCLA (19-4, 10-2) controlled the second half of play, not turning the ball over a lot, making big shots and outrebounding the Cougars on the afternoon, extending the nation’s longest active home game winning streak one more game to 21 in Pauley Pavilion.
Cougars coach Kyle Smith said UCLA having the speed and the physicality with their team against a short-manned roster in WSU was just too much to handle.
“We had some highlights in there,” Smith said. “Sometimes you have to give credit where credit is due and they were the better team and played really well today.”
WSU had a bad game all around, the shooting was inconsistent, the defense fell flat and the turnovers racked up, and the Cougars now find themselves in another losing skid heading into the latter part of the regular season.
After a 31-point performance two days ago, forward Mouhamed Gueye struggled shooting the ball all day, only totaling 6 points on 3 of 13 shooting from the field.
Smith said Gueye has to be the best player on the court for WSU.
“Credit to [UCLA], they were really physical with him and really bothered his post moves,” Smith said.
Even with cleaning up the turnovers in the second half, the difference of UCLA scoring 19 points off of Washington State's 11 first-half turnovers allowed UCLA to be in this game and eventually dominate throughout the second half.
UCLA guard Jaime Jaquez Jr. led the Bruins with 24 points and 15 rebounds, being the focal point for a team that will be contending for the conference title.
Smith said the back-and-forth runs both teams had really tired out a thin Cougars roster, and all the gas emptied the tank when the Bruins went on a 13-0 run in the second half and WSU just couldn’t come back.
“We had 7 and a quarter scholarship guys … to be that team, we’re gonna have to go 7 for 7,” Smith said.
WSU player of the game
Although a rough shooting game as a team, junior guard TJ Bamba may have found his groove again. After struggling to land baskets after his return to the court, he made 6 of 11 from the field and was nearly perfect from the line, posting some of his best numbers of the season shooting. Even though he only made 2 of 6 3-pointers, he was the main offensive focal point, alongside guard Justin Powell, who hit 5 3s and totaled 17 points.
Bamba finished with 19 points -- his first game with more than 18 points since Christmas Day -- and looked to get his mojo back after struggling to score more than 10 points since his return to the starting lineup.
What it means for WSU
The Cougars dropped to 10th place in the conference, with their conference-leading ninth loss on the season and officially have the worst road record in the Pac-12 at 1-8. WSU continues to struggle with its short-manned roster and hopes to turn it around sooner rather than later, with a difficult end of the regular season looming.
WSU will travel back to Pullman to welcome cross-state rivals Washington in one week in the first meeting of two in the Apple Cup series to kick off their final home stretch of the regular season.
Stats
Mouhamed Gueye: 6 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists
Andrej Jakimovski: 5 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists
Jabe Mullins: 5 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists
TJ Bamba: 19 points, 5 rebounds, 2 steals
Justin Powell: 17 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist
Carlos Rosario: 2 rebounds, 1 block
Jack Wilson: 1 rebound
Kymany Houinsou: 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal, 1 block