Brock Motum did what he has been doing virtually all season. On Saturday, the Cougars could not follow through in a 78-69 loss at Oregon.
The Cougars came close to sweeping the Oregon schools, but WSU simply could not defend the perimeter against the Ducks in Eugene. Oregon nailed a season-high 11 of 20 3-pointers as they distanced themselves from the Cougs in the second half.
Motum led WSU (13-12, 5-8) with 17 points, and Mike Ladd added 13 off the bench.
On the other end, the Cougars didn't have enough to slow down the Ducks (18-7, 9-4). E.J. Singler led Oregon with 23 points on eight of 12 shooting from the floor.
The game was close through the first half. Oregon took a 36-33 lead into the break on the strength of a 16-7 run to close out the half.
The Cougs managed to stay close, and took their first lead of the second half on Abe Lodwick's 3-pointer to make it 53-50.
It largely went back-and-forth following that bucket but Oregon hit their free throws down the stretch to ice the victory.
The Cougars turned in perhaps their most well-rounded performance of the year against Oregon State in Corvallis on Thursday.
Seven different WSU players scored in an 83-73 victory against the Beavers - a game that was not as close as the score would indicate.
Motum led WSU (13-11, 5-7) with 24 points. The Cougars shot 51 percent from the floor, while restricting OSU (15-9, 5-7) to only 37 percent shooting.
It was more than just Motum for the Cougars.
Reggie Moore dished out 11 assists and scored 10 points. Junior D.J. Shelton scored a career-high 14 points and hauled in nine rebounds.
Oregon State's Jared Cunningham showed how dangerous he could be, scoring a game-high 33 points on 10 of 20 shooting from the floor.
The Cougars scored 12 of their first 19 points in the paint en route to a 19-17 lead with 10:48 remaining in the first half. Still, WSU could not slow down conference-leading scorer Cunningham as he scored 14 of the Beavers first 23 points, including three three-pointers.
However, the Cougars engineered an offensive onslaught and built a 46-31 lead. The second half was more of the same as the Cougars continued to extend their lead, getting out to a 64-47 advantage.
WSU shot 54 percent up to that point in the game, while restricting OSU to only 32 percent shooting from the floor. Cunningham was the lone bright spot for the Beavers, as he hit seven of OSU's first 13 shots.
The Cougars will return to Pullman to begin a three-game homestand on Thursday against Arizona.
