Men's College Basketball | Klay Thompson's hot shooting leads Cougars over ASU

TEMPE, Ariz. — Washington State may have a new strategy: Get the ball to Klay Thompson.

The Cougars rode the hot shooting of the freshman, who scored a season-high 28 points and was 8 of 10 from three-point range, to a 65-55 victory over No. 14 Arizona State on Thursday night.

"We'll just have Klay get 28 each night and that's all we need to do and then just chip in where we can," said Washington State's Taylor Rochestie, the team's leading scorer.

But Thursday, it was Thompson who hit his first seven shots from the beyond the arc, beating the Sun Devils' tough zone defense that came into the night allowing just 57.8 points, second-best in the Pac-10.

"It was a huge win for us. It puts us right back into the hunt," said Thompson, who was 10 of 17 from the field overall and grabbed seven rebounds, all on the defensive end. "It felt amazing, especially when everything was going in."

The Cougars' conference-best defense held ASU to 8 of 29 shooting (28 percent) in the second half.

Aron Baynes added 22 points and nine rebounds for the Cougars (12-8, 4-4), who beat a ranked team for the first time in five games this season.

James Harden scored 26 points for ASU (16-4, 5-3), but the conference's leading scorer was 8 of 20 from the field and missed 5 of 13 free throws.

It was Washington State's fifth straight win over the Sun Devils, who haven't beaten the Cougars since March 4, 2006. The Sun Devils came into the game having won four of five and 12 of 14.

ASU shot 19 of 51 from the field (37 percent) and has shot 33 percent in its past two games combined.

The last of Thompson's seven straight threes gave the Cougars a 41-39 lead with 13:13 left. He missed two of the next three, but DeAngelo Castos' follow with 5:48 left gave WSU a 51-45 lead. Rochestie hit a three-pointer with two seconds left on the shot clock to give the Cougars a 54-49 lead with 3:33 left.

Rihards Kuksiks, the nation's leading three-point shooter at 49 percent, missed his eighth in 10 tries just 30 seconds later and ASU never got closer.

Other games

At USC 70, Stanford 69

Taj Gibson, recovered from a bout with pneumonia earlier this week, scored 20 points to lead USC over Stanford.

The Cardinal had a chance to win, but Lawrence Hill's baseline jumper went in and out as time expired.

Daniel Hackett and Leonard Washington added 12 points apiece for the Trojans (14-6, 5-3 Pac-10), who raised their record at Galen Center to 11-1.

Gibson shot 9 of 12. As a team, the Trojans shot 53.7 percent to Stanford's 45.6 percent. Hill had 19 points and eight rebounds, Landry Fields added 18 points and Anthony Goods scored 14 for Stanford (13-5, 3-5).

At No. 17 UCLA 81, California 66

Darren Collison scored 18 points as UCLA beat California to climb back into a first-place tie atop the Pac-10.

The Bruins (16-4, 6-2) had fallen out of first with last weekend's defeat at Washington, but the Huskies lost 106-97 at Arizona to drop into a tie with UCLA.

Freshman Jrue Holiday added 13 points and Josh Shipp had 11 for the Bruins, who, like Cal, had lost two of three. UCLA coach Ben Howland improved to 13-4 against Cal, the most success he's had against any opponent in 15 years of coaching.

Theo Robertson scored 19 points to lead the Golden Bears (16-5, 5-3), who remained tied for second in the conference.

At Montana State 69, E. Washington 65

Divaldo Mbunga scored 16 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to lead Montana State (10-9, 4-4 Big Sky) over Eastern Washington (9-12, 3-6).

Brandon Moore had 17 points for the Eagles, who led by as many as 10 points in the second half.

Note

• Dennis Felton was fired as Georgia's coach, one day after the Bulldogs dropped to 9-11 and 0-5 in the Southeastern Conference with a 26-point loss to Florida.