No. 21 Cougars deal Oregon State its

14th straight loss

Two teams now stand together atop the Oregon State men’s basketball program’s list of futility.

Washington State methodically wore down OSU 70-57 on Thursday night before a crimson-tinged crowd of 5,321 at Gill Coliseum. It was the 14th consecutive loss for the poor-shooting Beavers, matching the school-record 14 originally established by the 1995-96 club.

The Beavers (6-18,

0-12) are now winless through two-thirds of the Pacific-10 Conference’s double round-robin. Their last victory was Dec. 19 over Northern Colorado.

The Beavers are 0-5 under interim coach Kevin Mouton, who took over when former coach Jay John was dismissed on Jan. 20. But if they even realized they’d drawn another 15 percent closer to becoming the first team in Pac-10 history to go 0-18 in conference since the Arizona schools were added in 1978, no one said so publicly.

“The reason why is, we prepare game-by-game,” Mouton said. “It would be silly of me to (tell) our guys, ‘We have a 13-game losing streak.’

“We go game-by-game, and worry about fixing the things we didn’t do well,” and start preparing for Saturday’s game at practice this afternoon. “We don’t talk about (the streak). It is what it is.”

Added junior guard Ricky Claitt, who set Pac-10 career marks with nine points and 22 minutes:

“I don’t think it’s weighing on anybody. Our shots just aren’t falling, and when the shots don’t fall we have to play defense.

“We can’t let teams score 70 points on us when we’re not making shots. Get stops, and don’t put them at the free-throw line. You can’t let anyone shoot 35 free throws and expect to win.”

Junior guard Taylor Rochestie had a career-best 24 points and senior guard Derek Lowe added 21 for the 21st-ranked Cougars (19-5, 7-5), who broke a 16-16 standoff by outscoring OSU 13-5 over the final 6:07 of the first half to take a 29-21 halftime lead.

OSU never got closer than six points thereafter. Each time the Beavers appeared poised to make a run at WSU, Lowe would nail a 3-pointer or Rochestie would score on a drive or from the line to protect the lead.

“That’s the reason they’re 21st in the country,” Mouton said. “They make play when plays need to be made. That’s what Tony Bennett has taught.

“They’re athletic, they shoot well and they’re smart enough to do that when teams make runs. One of those guys is going to step up and hit a shot.”

No Beavers managed that with any consistency on Thursday, as they shot 22 percent (6-for-27) in the first half and 32 percent (18-for-56) for the game. OSU had one basket in the final 10:45 of the first half and WSU nearly equalled its defensive average of 55.5 points allowed, third nationally.

“You can’t go (10) minutes without a field goal and expect to win” Mouton said. “You have to make some shots to get a rhythm. We didn’t follow through and finish around the basket.”

The Cougars have now won two in a row after losing three consecutive home games by a combined 15 points and dropping out of Pac-10 championship contention. They can win 20 games in consecutive seasons for the first time in school history with one more victory.

“Even during the losing streak I felt we were getting better,” Rochestie said. “We just want to play great basketball. This time of the year everyone is playing well.”

The Beavers host Washington at 4 p.m. Saturday. The Huskies, who edged OSU 83-74 in Seattle on Jan. 19 in John’s final game, lost 71-58 at Oregon on Thursday.