PULLMAN – Washington State basketball fans have questioned Faisal Aden’s rapid-fire shooting tendencies on more than one occasion, and some critics have not been shy about expressing their desire to have him shoot far less.
If anyone was complaining about Aden’s shot selection Thursday night, they were drowned out by the cheers that cascaded down upon the senior wing while he scored a career-high 33 points to help the Cougars rally past Stanford, 81-69.
“I knew I was hot,” Aden said. “I was confident coming into the game.”
Aden scored 23 points in the final 15 minutes against the Cardinal (15-4 overall, 5-2 conference), which started the day tied with California for first place in the Pacific-12 Conference.
He went 10 of 17 from the field and made all 13 of his free throws.
“He was on fire,” Cardinal coach Johnny Dawkins said. “He had a terrific game.”
The Bears (16-4, 6-1), coming off a Thursday win at Washington, visit WSU (10-8, 2-4) at 3 p.m. Saturday.
Stanford, which nursed small leads most of the first half, expanded a 29-27 halftime lead to 42-29 after four minutes of the second half. WSU’s Brock Motum responded with back-to-back baskets, and then Aden took control.
“It was by far his best offensive game (in his two years at WSU),” Cougars coach Ken Bone said.
Aden, who said he scored 48 points in a high school game and had games “in the 30s” in junior college, said it “probably was” his best game for the Cougars.
WSU, outrebounded 46-24 Saturday at Washington, battled the Cardinal to a 30-30 draw on the boards. Stanford came into the game ranked among the nation’s best rebounding teams with an average advantage of 7.3 a game.
Motum scored 12 of his 16 points in the second half, and Reggie Moore had eight of his 13 points after halftime.
Josh Owens led Stanford with 19 points and 8-for-8 shooting. Freshman guard Chasson Randle nailed 5 of 11 shots – all from 3-point range – for 15 points.
The Cougars, 2-for-19 from the field at one point in the first half, shot 52 percent for the game by sinking 16 of 22 shots (73 percent) in the second half. The Cougars also converted 27 of 29 free throws.
Stanford, which relies heavily on 3-point shooting, took 33 of its 59 shots from beyond the arc but hit only eight treys (24 percent). The Cardinal shot 41 percent from the field overall.
Dawkins credited WSU’s collapsing zone defense for good work in holding Owens to three field-goal attempts in the second half. Bone said he was pleased with WSU’s defense and that the Cougars had just seven turnovers, three fewer than Stanford.
Washington State snapped a three-game losing streak and ended Stanford’s three-game winning streak.
Only 3,119 fans turned out in the snow for the Cougars’ first game at Beasley Coliseum since Dec. 18.
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