Mike Ladd was Washington State’s go-to guy in the first half, and Brock Motum picked up the Cougars after halftime. But it was Royce Woolridge who made the big plays in the end, helping WSU to its first road win of the season.
Woolridge scored Washington State’s final seven points in a 71-68 victory over the Oregon State Beavers on Saturday in Corvallis, Ore.
The sophomore guard twice scored on layups in the final two minutes after Oregon State (11-9, 1-6 Pacific-12 Conference) cut the deficit to two points. His two free throws with 7 seconds left provided the final margin.
“I felt like it was my time to step up and show some poise and some leadership,” Woolridge said, adding that he felt as though he didn’t do much the rest of the game. He finished 2-for-10 from the floor and scored nine points.
Ladd scored a career-high 23 points for the Cougars (11-9, 2-5), including 17 in the first half. Motum added 20 points — 16 in the second half — and 10 rebounds.
Ahmad Starks had 17 points and tied a career high with eight assists for Oregon State. Starks was wide of the basket on a potential game-tying 3-pointer from the top of the arc in the closing seconds.
That followed Curtis High School grad DaVonté Lacy’s two missed free throws for the Cougars and Starks’ layup with 7.9 seconds left to cut the WSU advantage to one.
“He had the fresher body because he was out of the game for a few minutes,” WSU coach Ken Bone said of Woolridge. “Ladd was really fatigued, so were trying to get the ball in Royce’s hands. It worked out well.”
Washington State had a 39-27 rebounding edge, including 10 from D.J. Shelton to go with six assists.
“There were still opportunities for us to win the game in spite of everything that was going on,” Beavers coach Craig Robinson said. “Pretty much, that’s all you can ask for.”
At Arizona State 78, UCLA 60: Jordan Bachynski had 22 points and 15 rebounds, while Carrick Felix added 23 points and 11 rebounds as the Sun Devils (16-4, 5-2) dominated the Bruins (16-5, 6-2) inside the lane.
Arizona State outscored UCLA in the paint, 46-26, and outrebounded the Bruins, 52-33.
“Coach told us we had two keys in order to win: One was rebounding and the other was win 50-50 balls. I took that to heart,” said Bachynski, who also had six blocked shots.
At No. 6 Arizona 74, USC 50: Nick Johnson scored 14 points and the Wildcats (17-2, 5-2) used a stifling defense to bounce back from a home loss to rout the Trojans (8-13, 3-5).
Arizona was dominant from the opening tip, shooting out to leads of 18-4 and 29-7 and holding a 39-20 lead at the half.
Solomon Hill added 13 points, Brandon Ashley 11 and Kaleb Tarczewski 10 for Arizona. No USC player reached double figures in the Trojans’ lowest-scoring game of the season.
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