TJ Bamba scored 20 points, Mouhamed Gueye had 17 points and 15 rebounds — his 11th double-double of the season and fourth in the last five games — and Washington State beat in-state rival Washington 56-51 Saturday night.
Washington State (11-15, 5-9 Pac-12) opened the game with an 8-0 run before Koren Johnson hit a 3-pointer with 9:59 left in the first half to give the Huskies their first lead at 11-10. Gueye hit a jumper and followed with a three-point play about two minutes later and the Cougars never again trailed. Cole Bajema’s layup made it 20-all with four minutes left, but WSU scored the next 11 points to take the lead for good and Andrej Jakimovski hit a 3-pointer to open the second half that made it 34-22.
Washington (13-13, 5-10 Pac-12) has lost four games in a row and five of its last six.
Noah Williams, who played 91 games for the Cougars before transferring to Washington in the offseason, had 12 points and four rebounds in his return to Beasley Coliseum. The 6-foot-5 Seattle native averaged 14.1 points in 30 games for Washington State in 2019-20 before seeing his role diminish last season. His father Guy Williams played at WSU and was a second-round pick by the Washington Bullets in the 1983 NBA Draft.
Braxton Meah added 11 points and 10 rebounds for Washington. The Huskies have lost four games in a row and five of their last six.
The Huskies twice trimmed their deficit to two points in the second half, but each time Washington State had an answer. Williams made a jumper that made it 37-35 with 12:54 left before Justin Powell hit a 3-pointer and Jabe Mullins added two more in a 10-2 spurt over the next five minutes. Jamal Bey and Keyon Menifield each scored four points in an 8-0 run with 1:24 remaining but Bamba answered with two free throws and, after a Washington miss at the other end, Gueye put back a Bamba miss to give the Cougars 53-47 lead with 42 seconds to go.
Bey played his 140th career game for the Huskies, a program record.
Washington State shot just 29% (17 of 58) from the field, 27% (8 of 30) from 3-point range and 67% (14 of 21) from the free-throw line but outscored the Huskies 24-12 from behind the arc and 14-9 from the stripe.
The Cougars outrebounded Washington 47-35 and used a 17-9 advantage on the offensive glass to finish plus-10 (18-8) in second-chance points.
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Washington plays host to Oregon on Thursday
Washington State takes on Oregon State on Thursday in the second of three consecutive home games
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