This Washington State basketball team sure saved its best for last.

With a 93-84 win over Washington on Thursday night in Seattle, the Cougars not only swept the season series from the rival Huskies but closed out the regular-season schedule with six straight wins.

TJ Bamba played the starring role this time with a season-high 36 points, as he hit 13 of 20 shots from the field (3 of 5 on 3-pointers) and a perfect 7 for 7 at the foul line.

This game was all Cougars from the opening tip, with WSU (16-15, 11-9 Pac-12) opening the game on a 15-3 run against the Huskies and never looking back, hitting 50.7 percent of its shots made from the field.

The Huskies (16-15, 8-12) tried to spark multiple comebacks throughout this game, but losing on the boards (40-29) along with shooting 68.8 percent from the free throw line kept Washington from securing a home victory on senior night.

All five starters for the Cougars scored in double-figures, with Bamba leading the way, Mouhamed Gueye notching his league-leading 15th double-double on the season with 15 points and 10 rebounds, Andrej Jakimovski also turning in a double-double with 12 points and 17 rebounds, DJ Rodman chipping in 16 points and Justin Powell scoring 11.

“My team relies on me to do a lot of things on the defensive end, on the offensive end,” Bamba said. “I was just trying to be the leader I am and be a teammate and help us come through with this victory on the road.”

Cougars coach Kyle Smith talked about Bamba’s performance from a coaching perspective, and how he just looked dominant out of the floor with a level of control to his game.

“[Bamba] is super poised, really patient on all his decision-making offensively,” Smith said. “I’ll never put a ceiling on that young man because his mind is his most powerful tool.”

Smith talked about the early struggles for this team, with injuries piling up and losing some tough games down the stretch, and then to be able to turn it around for six straight wins to finish the regular season.

“Our program’s matured. Obviously, we had two tough breaks in the beginning of the season without Dishon [Jackson] and Myles [Rice],” Smith said. “We don’t set a lot of goals, we just set our goals for improving,”

WSU player of the game

Bamba broke his previous career high of 22 points by a wide margin Thursday night.

Bamba has taken his game to the next level the past few games since returning from injury, averaging 20.4 points in the last five games for the Cougars.

What’s next for the Cougars

WSU will now await its fate for the Pac-12 tournament, with a 11-9 conference record, in the mix to be as high as the No. 4 seed, and as low as the No. 7 seed.

The Cougars would need an Oregon loss to Stanford on Saturday, along with a Utah loss to Colorado and an Arizona State loss to USC on Saturday to be in the mix for the 4 seed and first-round bye in the Pac-12 tournament.

Losses by Utah, Oregon and Arizona State would give the Cougars at least a 6 seed and force a three-way tie between WSU, ASU and Oregon, and it would come down to multiple tiebreaker situations.

Stats

Mouhamed Gueye: 15 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, 1 block

Andrej Jakimovski: 12 points, 17 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 block

DJ Rodman: 16 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists

TJ Bamba: 36 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 block

Justin Powell: 11 points, 4 assists, 1 steal

Dylan Darling: 1 rebound, 1 steal

Jabe Mullins: 3 points, 1 rebound

Jack Wilson: 1 personal foul