Cougars feel the blues in loss to Tar Heels

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The first came off with 2:46 remaining, long after the game had been lost. "ROB-bie COW-gill," the Washington State fans chanted. The 6-foot-10 senior forward accepted some hugs, took a final seat and dabbed his moist eyes with a towel.

The end came for Derrick Low and Kyle Weaver, too, and they were bid goodbye in similar fashion by the WSU faithful. And in a moment, inside one of the cavernous, blue-draped rooms where the NCAA runs its tournament, an official slipped the name "North Carolina" onto a new line in the bracket opposite Louisville.

Last week's euphoria morphed into Thursday night's melancholy here at Bobcats Arena, where WSU's Sweet 16 run skidded off the rails, 68-47, against a North Carolina team that was simply better.

"Against a team in the Sweet 16, you have to score points and you have to get stops," said WSU guard Taylor Rochestie. "We struggled in both areas tonight."

It was such a struggle that WSU plumbed depths it wouldn't have foreseen. The Cougars shot a season-low 31.6 percent, their margin of defeat was greater than any in the two-year, Tony Bennett renaissance that brought a 52-17 record, and WSU scored fewer than any Carolina opponent in an NCAA-tournament game since 1946.

This wasn't what WSU had in mind for the Tar Heels, after the Cougars had surrendered just 81 points in two NCAA games. And it surely wasn't what they wanted for Cowgill, Low and Weaver, the cornerstones that rebuilt the men's basketball program.

"Just seeing them leave, it was going to be hard either way," Rochestie said. "Looking at the crowd, seeing their families, their brothers, sisters, parents, relatives that I've gotten to know and gotten to love the last couple of years. ...

"We built a family here. I know that's what it is at Washington State. I'm glad they got to have a standing ovation because that's what they deserve."

The seniors left the way they arrived and succeeded — together. They had poor games collectively, making only 10 field goals in 36 tries, as the only consistent thing WSU could generate offensively came from center Aron Baynes.

Carolina shot 43.1 percent, nothing overpowering, but enough for Bennett to say: "I feel a little disappointed in the defense. For us to stay in the game, we needed to be at an 'A' level defensively, and offensively, we needed to be much more sound."

If you'd seen a 21-point Tar Heels victory, you'd probably have figured WSU would have been spooked early, or that Carolina would have revved up its vaunted fast break, or that player-of-the-year Tyler Hansbrough would have rampaged inside.

None of those things happened.

"They just showed how good they are, how dynamic they are," Rochestie said. "You think you stopped a couple of their great players ... each of their players had only a three- or four-minute period when they started playing well, but when you add all those together, it's a great game."

The Tar Heel that damaged WSU most was reserve junior swingman Danny Green, who had 12 first-half points that spurred the Tar Heels to a 35-21 halftime lead.

"Danny Green gave us a huge lift," North Carolina coach Roy Williams said.

Washington State parried evenly with the Heels for 11 minutes, trailing 15-14. But it was ominous that both Low and Rochestie missed an early pair of short runners, good shots that could have staked the Cougars to a lead.

It gradually came apart before intermission, when WSU scored on only two of its final 13 possessions and Carolina converted 8 of 9.

Transition wasn't hurting the Cougars, nor was Hansbrough, who had the first of 18 points with just 77 seconds left in the half. But they got hurt on the offensive boards, allowing 14 for the game, and by their shooting miseries.

"Yeah," Weaver lamented. "It was freezing out there."

Cowgill said wryly, "You know, it always seems like when that happens to other teams against us, they said it was just an off-shooting night. But it seemed like we got good looks, open shots.

"I don't want to say it wasn't their 'D' at all. They're physical and they speed you up a little, and that can have a little to do with it. We were getting what we wanted. We just weren't able to put it in."

In two seasons, WSU has been a team that didn't go away, but on this night, it had already left the building. Hansbrough came back to score 16 second-half points and the Cougars never were closer than 12, leaving them only echoes of their remarkable turnaround the past two years.

"This group, this staff, held up its end of the bargain," Cowgill said of the seniors, sniffling as he tried to reconcile defeat against triumph in his last college locker room. "We did it the right way, and we did it together."

Bud Withers: 206-464-8281