Myles Rice grabbed an offensive rebound of a missed free throw with 23 seconds to play, and his two free throws after being fouled sealed Washington State’s 62-56 win over Oregon Saturday afternoon in Eugene, Ore.
Rice scored 14 of his game-high 21 points in the second half, and added nine rebounds to lead the Cougars, who won their fifth straight game and eighth in the past nine. Washington State (18-6, 9-4 Pac-12) moved into sole possession of second place in the conference.
The Cougars earned just their second win in the 11 games they have played at Matthew Knight Arena, home of the Ducks, and their first since 2021.
Oregon (16-8, 8-5) fell into at least a share of third place in the conference. N’Faly Dante had 15 points and 13 rebounds, but the Ducks made just 22 of 61 shots (36 percent) for the game and made just one of their final eight shots of the game.
Oregon led just twice but cut the Cougars’ lead to two twice inside the final 5 minutes, 11 seconds of the game. The Ducks couldn’t grab the lead, however.
Dante provided Oregon’s highlight plays. His putback dunk cut the lead to 19-16 with 7:39 to go in the half.
The Cougars led by as many as eight points in the first half, but the Ducks were energized going into halftime when Dante pulled down a rebound and dribbled the length of the court for a dunk. Washington State’s lead was down to 29-27 at halftime.
Oregon turnovers helped the Cougars take a 39-33 lead early in the second half after Oregon had tied the game, and Washington State led by as many as nine in the second half.
The Cougars went ahead 47-38 on a jumper from Oscar Cluff at the 9:41 mark. But Jermaine Cousinard hit a baseline 3 with 8:07 to go, his team’s first 3-pointer of the night on its 10th attempt, to cut the Washington State lead to three.
Cousinard made another 3 after leaving the game briefly due to injury, making it 58-56 with 47 seconds to go. But the Cougars scored the game’s last four points, three on Rice free throws.
Isaac Jones and Jaylen Wells had 13 points for Washington State who also got 12 from Cluff.
–Field Level Media
