With a little late help from Louisiana State, Washington State rewarded a crowd of 15,341 Tuesday night at KeyArena with a rousing 72-70 basketball victory over the Tigers in overtime.
Down two and with the Tigers shooting two free throws with 19 seconds left in regulation, WSU didn’t appear to have much chance to notch a 10th victory against two defeats.
But the Cougars scrapped back to knot it, send it to overtime and trailed only at the outset of the extra session. Never was it easy, though, against the Tigers, coached by Trent Johnson, a Franklin High grad and former Stanford coach.
After Rainier Beach product and LSU (8-3) freshman Aaron Dotson scored from the baseline for the first basket of overtime, fellow Beach grad Reggie Moore drove the lane and twisted in a six-footer and converted a free throw to give the Cougars the lead, 65-64.
A couple of missed threes by the Tigers, plus three free throws, one by Klay Thompson, two by Nik Koprivica, and the Cougars had a 68-64 lead.
They nudged it to 70-65 with 70 seconds showing, but LSU got a fast and deep three from Tasmin Mitchell to make it 70-68 with 1:03 showing.
Thompson, who finished with a game-high 26 points, hit two foul shots at 47 seconds but guard Bo Spencer answered with a flying drive at 43 seconds to make it 72-70, WSU.
After the Cougars ran the clock down and called time with 12 seconds left, Thompson was whistled for charging Tasmin Mitchell and LSU had one final chance with 8.2 seconds left.
They got it to Spencer, who had led LSU in the second half and scored a team-high 23 points. He raced upcourt against the defense of Marcus Capers, launched a tough three from about 23 feet and it bounced off into the hands of Thompson, giving the Cougars an exceedingly hard-earned victory.
In regulation, it was knotted at 60 when, after a timeout with 2:33 left, Spencer was whistled for a charge on Koprivica, turning it over to the Cougars.
With the shot clock winding down, Moore launched an unsuccessful 15-footer but LSU couldn’t control the rebound. Thompson then found Koprivica in the left corner for WSU and he had a clean look at a three, but missed and the Tigers rebounded.
LSU’s Mitchell set a high screen for Spencer, who had lit up the Cougars in the second half, and he stepped back and cleanly drained the perimeter jumper.
After a timeout, the Cougars found their sharpshooter, Thompson, but he missed on a three and LSU rebounded with 19.8 seconds left. That’s when Tigers guard Chris Bass left the door open for WSU by missing two free throws short.
Moore then penetrated and found DeAngelo Casto, who, after bobbling the pass underneath, laid the ball up to tie it at 62. LSU’s Spencer couldn’t control the ball coming upcourt and WSU got the ball after a scramble but couldn’t do anything with a mere four-tenths of a second left.
Casto had 13 points and seven rebounds, Moore scored 12 points and Koprivica had 11 for Washington State.
Mitchell had 18 points and 14 rebounds for LSU.
By Bud Withers
Seattle Times staff reporter