Wichita State Embarrasses Cougars

The Washington State University men's hoop team had difficulties finding the hoop or a rebound but Wichita State had no such problems as the Shockers embarrassed the Cougars, 75-44 in the semifinal of the National Invitation Tournament at Madison Square Garden in New York. With the loss, the Cougars finish their season at 22-13 overall.

Both teams came out sluggish as neither team could find the basket in the game's first two minutes. Wichita State finally scored the game's first points after two minutes of play but the Cougars would not score until nearly three minutes later - at 15:20. To make matters worse, junior shooting guard Klay Thompson was saddled with two fouls barely seven minutes into the game. With Thompson in foul trouble, junior guard Faisal Aden picked up some of the scoring slack but the Cougars were getting unmercifully out-rebounded as the Shockers built their lead into double digits. When Thompson picked up his third foul with just over 10 minutes left in the half, Wichita State proceeded to continue to build their lead and eventually went into the locker room at halftime carrying their biggest lead of the half at 36-19.

It got no better in the second half for the Cougars as Wichita State continued to shoot well and rebound well while the Cougars continued to shoot poorly. The Shockers kept their lead over 30 points for most of the second half and never allowed the Cougars to get any closer. Thompson, the Cougars' and Pac-10's leading scorer coming into the game was never a factor in the game and picked up his fourth foul with 12:03 remaining in the game.

No Cougars were able to reach double digits in scoring as sophomore point guard Reggie Moore and junior forward DeAngelo Casto led the Cougars with nine points apiece, followed by Aden with eight points.

NOTES:

- Thompson, who tied his season low with only six points, played only eight minutes of the first half due to his early foul trouble.

- Wichita State out-rebounded the Cougars by a whopping 52-25 margin.

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