Men's Basketball | Aron Baynes' steal and dunk fires Cougars to victory

PULLMAN — Here's the way it is in Pac-10 basketball, 2008:

The most talked-about play of the Arizona State-Washington State game Thursday night comes when Aron Baynes, the burly, 6-foot-10 Aussie, goes out to the high post, taps away a pass James Harden had intended for Jeff Pendergraph and suddenly sees himself with nothing but 70 feet of parquet floor between him and the basket.

"That got the crowd in a frenzy," said WSU forward Robbie Cowgill. "It got us in a frenzy."

The Cougars muscled, milked clock and moshed ASU into submission, 59-47, in a game that was a lot closer than that.

It was also lower-scoring. The game was 47-43, WSU, when with a mere 2:23 left, the Cougars got the key bucket of the night, when Taylor Rochestie found Daven Harmeling in the left corner for a killer three.

Lakers showtime, it ain't. Winning basketball, it is.

UCLA is doing it with defense, and will likely win a league championship. Stanford grinds you with two 7-footers. The Cougars, living and dying with defense, look like a mid-major in the airport and a possible 4 seed in the NCAA tournament if they keep winning.

Sunday, UCLA and USC, with half a dozen future pros, wore on each other to the tune of a 56-46 outcome. This might not be what the TV moguls want at Fox in Los Angeles, but they're getting it, in spades.

"My dad [Dick Bennett] came into this league, Tim Floyd [at USC], Ben Howland [at UCLA]," said Tony Bennett, the second-year WSU coach. "I think they changed the whole league."

He added Herb Sendek, the ASU coach, and Trent Johnson of Stanford.

"It's a physical game, it's half-court, it's tough," said Bennett. "It doesn't mean you don't run. It's become more of an NCAA-tournament style."

In this game, there was nothing easy, not when WSU separated for a 39-30 lead in the second half, not ever. ASU didn't have a soul with more than three baskets, hitting 15 of 45 (33 percent). Kyle Weaver held down uber-freshman Harden, whom Sendek said was feeling some back pain, to just 10 points.

WSU had just 19 baskets but it never trailed after Derrick Low hit a three with 65 seconds gone.

The start of this one was a perfect metaphor for what's taken hold in the Pac-10. While the Cougars wrangled ways to attack ASU's troublesome matchup zone, and the Sun Devils tried to penetrate WSU's prickly man-to-man, the clock ticked under the TV-timeout mark at 16 minutes.

And it kept going, and kept going, to what must have been record territory. It ticked under 12, and still, the coaches had their guys play on, gassed or not. It was a stare-down to see who would get a timeout, even as Low and Rochestie and Harden, good three-shooters all, missed successive treys, and Baynes burped up an air ball.

Finally, with 10:41 left, Sendek called a 30-second timeout, more than five minutes after the usual spot for a TV breather.

The Cougars led 30-26 at the half, took control by nine, and leading by three, 43-40, got an unlikely lift from the ponderous Baynes, who took his steal the length of the floor, went off one leg and jammed it.

"I was just hoping he didn't fall down or lose the ball," said Low with a straight face. "I've never seen him do that before."

Bennett thought something different: "I can just hear Chris Berman announcing that one as he's rumbling down the floor. I'm looking at the rim and thinking, 'Is he gonna get there?' "

Baynes did, caffeinating what had been a pretty proper crowd of 9,212. And soon, WSU had its 21st victory against five losses and ninth win in the league, and this one was the target, really, the victory that ought to assure a second straight NCAA appearance.

That would be a first in the history of a school that's only been dancing five times. If it's a waltz rather than a swing, well, so what?

"We have a way we have to play to have a chance to be competitive," Bennett said. "We try to be true to that."

Bennett has always maintained athleticism isn't just running and jumping; it's also hand-eye coordination and precision.

"When the ball's moving, it can look good," he said.

He didn't even mention that the Cougars have won 47 games in two seasons playing this way. But he added with a wink: "Beauty's in the eye of the beholder, right?"

Bud Withers: 206-464-8281 or bwithers@seattletimes.com

ARIZONA ST. (16-9, 6-7 PAC-10)
min		fgm-a	ftm-a	or-t	a	pf	pts
Pendergraph	36	3-9	2-2	1-8	3	4	8
Kuksiks	23	1-3	2-2	0-3	1	0	5
Abbott	32	2-4	2-2	0-0	2	3	7
Glasser	30	3-9	0-0	0-3	2	2	7
Harden	30	3-11	3-3	1-4	2	3	10
Atuahene	4	0-1	0-0	1-2	0	1	0
Boateng	4	0-0	0-0	0-1	0	1	0
McMillan	8	0-1	0-0	0-2	1	3	0
Polk	10	1-3	2-2	0-0	0	1	5
Shipp	23	2-4	0-0	2-3	0	1	5
	200	15-45	11-11	5-27	11	19	47

Percentages: FG .333, FT 1.000. Three-point goals: 6-25, .240 (Polk 1-3, Shipp 1-3, Abbott 1-3, Kuksiks 1-3, Glasser 1-5, Harden 1-7, McMillan 0-1). Team rebounds: 1. Blocked shots: 3 (Pendergraph 3). Turnovers: 13 (Pendergraph 4, Harden 3, Kuksiks, Abbott, McMillan, Shipp, Boateng, Glasser). Steals: 4 (Harden 2, Kuksiks, Glasser). Technical fouls: None.

WASHINGTON ST. (21-5, 9-5)
min		fgm-a	ftm-a	or-t	a	pf	pts
Cowgill	29	4-6	1-2	5-5	1	0	9
Baynes	28	5-9	0-2	0-6	0	1	10
Low	36	4-10	5-6	0-6	2	0	15
Rochestie	38	1-10	8-10	0-6	3	0	10
Weaver	33	2-4	2-2	0-4	4	4	6
Koprivica	10	0-1	1-2	0-0	1	0	1
Harmeling	20	2-3	0-0	0-0	0	3	6
Forrest	6	1-1	0-0	0-0	0	0	2
	200	19-44	17-24	6-31	11	8	59

Percentages: FG .432, FT .708. Three-point goals: 4-13, .308 (Harmeling 2-3, Low 2-7, Rochestie 0-3). Team rebounds: 4. Blocked shots: 1 (Cowgill). Turnovers: 8 (Low 2, Rochestie 2, Baynes, Koprivica, Weaver). Steals: 8 (Baynes 4, Low 2, Cowgill 2). Technical fouls: None.

Arizona St.	26	21	—	47
Washington St.	30	29	—	59

Attendance: 9,212.