PULLMAN – The Washington State Cougars staged a “Gray Out” in the stands on Saturday, and the Cougars came close to staging a shutout on the court in the first half of a 72-50 romp over Arizona State.
The Cougars held the Sun Devils to three baskets and eight points in the opening half. WSU scored the first 10 points and the last 15 points of the half to build a stunning 36-8 lead at intermission.
“We just blew ’em out of the water,” WSU star Brock Motum summed up.
Marcus Capers, the Cougars’ gregarious senior guard, jokingly took credit for inspiring the team with his pregame antics.
“I had to crank it up, show a few dance moves,” Capers deadpanned.
Freshman guard DaVonte Lacy, who loves to give Capers grief, begged to differ.
“He didn’t do nothin’, ” Lacy said. “He moved around a little bit. He thinks he can dance or something like that.
“It’s not ‘Dancing with the Stars.’ He thinks he got us going, but we got ourselves going.”
Lacy scored more points (11) in the first 14 minutes than he had in any of the previous five games. The Curtis High School product finished with a team-high 17 points, one more than Motum. Capers added nine points, a career-high seven assists and a season-high 10 rebounds in a fine performance.
Many freshmen wear down physically late in the season, but Lacy said he had been struggling to stay mentally sharp.
“I think I’m over it now,” he said. “I’m ready to play and win.”
The Sun Devils, a senior-less team without a true point guard, have struggled on offense all season. Still, Arizona State had not scored fewer than 15 points in a half, and the Cougars – ranked 11th in the Pacific-12 Conference at the start of the day with 72.8 points allowed per league game – had not held anyone to fewer than 15 points in a half.
“We had an outstanding first half in almost every facet,” Cougars coach Ken Bone said.
Most of the 5,218 fans (the largest Beasley Coliseum crowd of the season) wore gray, and WSU players wore gray road uniforms.
The Sun Devils were feeling blue after scoring four fewer points in a half than any other Cougars opponent since the NCAA adopted a men’s shot clock in 1985-86.
“I don’t think you ever see something like that coming,” ASU coach Herb Sendek said. “Washington State played very well. We did not, obviously.”
Capers, who helped limit ASU season scoring leader Trent Lockett to six points on 2-for-10 shooting, said the Cougars played their best man-to-man defense of the season in the first half. The Sun Devils sank shot 16.7 percent (3-of-18 accuracy).
After losing five of the previous seven games, the Cougars (14-13 overall, 6-9 Pacific-12 Conference) carry some momentum into next Saturday’s home finale with Washington (19-8, 12-3).
Saturday night’s second half dragged on forever thanks to a steady stream of fouls and turnovers. The Sun Devils (8-19, 4-11) played hard to the end – “That was very impressive,” Bone said -- and ASU point guard Chris Colvin scored 16 of his 18 points after halftime.
Bone said the Cougars expect to have key reserve guard Mike Ladd back for the Washington game. Ladd suffered a concussion in Thursday’s loss to Arizona.
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