'Relentless' Wildcats race through Washington State's defense for 72-60 victory

PULLMAN, Wash. – Washington State may have had the Pac-12’s most efficient defense entering Thursday but Arizona made the Cougars look, well, pretty much like everyone else.

The Wildcats just scored fewer points than they usually do. That’s all.

In UA’s 72-60 win over WSU at Beasley Coliseum, the fourth-ranked Wildcats were the ones with the tough defense, holding the Cougars to just 34.2% from the field, while tearing into the Cougars’ defensive effort on the other end.

Arizona shot 49.1% overall and 42.1% from 3-point range, scoring inside, from long range and on the break.

“It’s the transition — they are relentless,” WSU coach Kyle Smith said. “When they went small, that’s when they can be even harder to chase around the 3 and they get penetration. I felt like we were on our heels there. Really tricky part for us.”

Smith lamented some “boneheaded” efforts from the Cougars that might have stopped some of the Wildcats’ transition, and he also blamed himself for even trying to pull out some zone defense in an effort to stop it.

“We gave up about 12 points in four possessions” when playing zone, Smith said, chuckling out of frustration. “It has been a good defense for us but they’re very good. Their zone attack is really good.”

The Wildcats were all over the place, basically.

While wing Bennedict Mathurin led the Wildcats in scoring with 20 points on 7-for-12 shooting, guard Dalen Terry had a career-high 12 rebounds and five assists.

Inside, forward Azuolas Tubelis had 15 points and five rebounds, while center Christian Koloko had nine rebounds and four blocks, and backup center Oumar Ballo added another 10 points off the bench.

Despite all that, UA coach Tommy Lloyd said it could have been even better.

“I thought we rushed some of our finishes,” Lloyd said. “Fighting to get good shots is something we work hard at in our offense. But they’re formidable. They’re a really good defensive team and I thought we did a good job moving them and kind of breaking down some of their pressure.”

The centerpiece of Arizona’s transition attack, meanwhile, was the same familiar face the Cougars might remember from a year ago.

Mathurin broke out with 24 points as a freshman over New Year’s weekend in 2020-21, leading the Wildcats to an 86-82 double overtime win. This time, he had 20 points on 7-for-12 shooting, often by zipping to the bucket before the Cougars could come close to stopping him.

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“I own the gym,” Mathurin said jokingly. “To be honest, it was a pretty good experience. It was really cool to play with fans.”

By Washington State standards, it was a lot of fans, too. The Cougars announced 5,012 fans showed up, the most since 10,380 showed up to watch Klay Thompson’s jersey get retired in 2019-20.

But that also served to heighten the pressure on the Cougs, who are trying to prove themselves worthy of an at-large NCAA Tournament berth.

While the fourth-ranked Wildcats improved to 21-2 overall and 11-1 in the Pac-12 with the win, WSU dropped to 14-8 and 7-4 in a game that never appeared close in part because the Cougars missed all 12 3s they tried in the first half.

“We lost our composure as far as execution a little bit offensively,” Smith said. “But that’s what good teams will do to you — they’ll stretch you and test you. We had to fight and keep competing.”

Lloyd said holding the Cougars to the first-half 0-fer was “huge” because he really wanted to guard the 3-point line against WSU, which has taken the highest percentage of 3s to overall shots taken of any team in the Pac-12.

“I just felt if we could make it into a two-point/free throw game, that we’d be in good shape,” Lloyd said.

They were.

The Cougars really only were able to make a significant push early in the second half, after they started hitting 3s. Arizona led 33-20 at halftime, but WSU received 3s early in the second half from both forward Efe Abogidi and guard Tyrell Roberts, and pulled within four points, 39-35, when Michael Flowers scored in the lane with 15:11 left.

But the Wildcats used their own flurry of 3s to take control of the game midway through the second half, getting two 3s from Mathurin and one from Justin Kier within just 55 seconds.

Kier’s 3 gave UA a 60-42 lead with 9:36 left and the Wildcats went up by as many as 22 points before WSU cut it slightly closer in the final minutes despite losing center Mouhamed Gueye to an apparent injury to his left ankle. Smith said he wasn’t sure if Gueye would return to face ASU on Saturday.

Before long, the Wildcats were off via late-night charter flight to Seattle, where they will stay until a Saturday afternoon game with the Huskies.

That will take Lloyd back closer to his Western Washington hometown of Kelso after he spent Wednesday night in Spokane with friends from his Gonzaga days.

“We had a good time,” Lloyd said. “It was really the first time I’ve been back, so it was great to see a bunch of friends. We met up with a bunch of people and had a really good night.”

The next night, bringing a 12-point road win, wasn’t too bad for Lloyd and the Wildcats, either.