UCLA hoops at Washington St

Josh Hawkinson’s fourth block got an admittedly small crowd on its feet, and fans stood sporadically to cheer when the Cougars frequently made trips to the free-throw line to ice a game that was practically decided.

The 1,912 fans in attendance had some fun and the Bruins left Pullman with yet another loss, having not beaten the Cougars in Pullman since February 4, 2012.

It turned into a slog, as if the teams were playing on ice.

The two teams traded buckets in the final overtime period before Andrews scored five straight to give the UW a 90-85 lead.

Washington had five players in double figures, including 15 points from reserve Malik Dime, who scored eight straight for Washington midway through the second half when the Huskies were trying to hold their lead.

Washington Huskies head coach Lorenzo Romar pumps his fist at the end of a game against the UCLA Bruins at Alaska Airlines Arena.

NO. 18 LOUISVILLE 65, WAKE FOREST 57: Freshman Donovan Mitchell had season highs with 18 points and eight rebounds in his first start and Louisville held off Wake Forest. The Bruins scored the first three points of overtime but Crisp’s 3-pointer pulled Washington even at 74. The 17 made free throws by both Alford and Andrews were the most by a UCLA player and opponent in a game since the NCAA began keeping those statistics in the 1996-97 season.3.

“Junior’s a really fun player to play with”, Hawkinson said. “He’s athletic so he can guard guards all the way up to the big guys”. The Cougars’ strategy of denying the post was effective, yielding seven steals, including three by Longrus.

“We wanted to create tempo and pace and we wanted it to be fast”, Kent said. “We want to make sure we call this the way we had talked about before the season.’ And it obviously was called a little tighter (vs. UCLA)”. “I felt like Junior was excellent defensively”. Bryce Alford scored a season-high 30 points in the game (one shy of his career-best 31 points).

The Wildcats shot 55 percent overall and made 7 of 12 from 3-point range, including 5 of 8 in the second half.

“We’re going to have to push it as hard as we can because we have a ways to go”, said sophomore center Thomas Welsh.

After scoring 54 points in the first half, “we came out lackadaisical in the second half”, McLaughlin said on the Pac-12 Networks after the game. In Friday’s loss to USC, the Cougars were lethargic, and outclassed by the Trojans’ energy and athleticism.

Andrews felt the young Huskies got a taste of what life will be like in the Pac-12. But in his last four games, the 6-foot-10, 215-pound forward has averaged 27.5 minutes, using his length to bolster the Bruins’ defense and rebounding. “Tonight, I just didn’t like our effort or passion at all”. If you don’t play this game with effort and passion, you’re going to get beat, especially in this league. You can tell how much front-yard basketball he’s played by how efficiently he’s able to score off of wild caroms off the rim. They’re likely to fall out of the rankings again and will try to avoid heading into Thursday’s home matchup with No. 8 Arizona with back-to-back losses in Washington.