Credit: Joe Rondone/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK
Andrej Jakimovski scored a career-high 22 points, Justin Powell added a season-high 20 and Washington State ended a three-game losing streak with a 75-58 victory over Arizona State on Saturday at Pullman, Wash.
Mouhamed Gueye added 11 points with 15 rebounds as the Cougars (10-13, 5-7 Pac-12) avenged a Jan. 5 defeat to the Sun Devils and improved to 7-3 at home.
Frankie Collins scored 16 points and Desmond Cambridge Jr. added 15 as the Sun Devils (15-7, 6-5) continued their freefall from near the top of the Pac-12 standings with a fourth consecutive loss. Arizona State lost a showdown game against UCLA for first place on Jan. 19 and hasn’t won since.
Warren Washington had 12 points for the Sun Devils, who were playing without third-leading scorer DJ Horne (11.2 points per game) because of “conduct detrimental to the team,” according to the ESPN broadcast.
Washington State took advantage of Arizona State’s new-look lineup without Horne, taking their first lead eight minutes into the game and opening their first double-digit advantage at 27-16 on a layup by Gueye.
The Cougars led by as many as 15 points in the first half on two occasions and were up 36-24 at halftime. Washington State made eight 3-pointers in the first half, including one from Gueye, just his fifth of the season.
Washington State led 48-36 with 10:31 remaining before Arizona State went on a 7-1 run to pull within 48-41 with 9:48 left. The Sun Devils were as close as 53-48 with 6:45 remaining before the Cougars pushed the lead back to double digits at 58-48 with 5:28 remaining and held on from there.
Powell made three 3-pointers in each half for Washington State and went 6 of 11 from distance in the game. The Cougars had a 47-33 rebounding advantage and led 10-0 in second-chance points.
Washington State was 14 of 34 from 3-point range in the game, while Arizona State was 5 of 15.
–Field Level Media