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Washington State edges Pitt in CBI Final opener

Mar 27, 2012 - 4:37 AM Pullman, WA (Sports Network) - Abe Lodwick scored 16 points and pulled down seven rebounds, as Washington State held off a late charge to edge Pittsburgh, 67-66, in the opener of the College Basketball Invitational championship series on Monday.

Reggie Moore finished with 14 points, five boards and five assists and DaVonte Lacy supplied 10 points for the Cougars (19-16), who defeated San Francisco, Wyoming and Pac-12 rival Oregon State to reach the CBI final.

They can win the best-of-three series in Pittsburgh on Wednesday.

Tray Woodall and J.J. Moore paced the Panthers (20-17) with 16 points apiece, Woodall dished out seven assists and Nasir Robinson scored 11 points in defeat. Pitt bested Wofford, Princeton and Butler en route to the championship set.

Washington State took its largest lead of the game at 12 points with just under eight minutes to play but Pitt responded with an 11-2 run, capped off by Lamar Patterson's fastbreak dunk, to make it 65-62.

Lodwick had stopped the bleeding with a three-pointer when Marcus Capers fouled Morre's three-point attempt. He knocked down all three from the charity stripe.

Pitt's Talib Zanna converted a three-point play 10 seconds after WSU's Reggie Moore hit a jumper and it was a two-point game with 1:01 to play.

Zanna almost finished the comeback in the final seconds when, after grabbing Patterson's miss, he went to the line. But he missed his second three-throw attempt, and Woodall's layup attempt a bit later was blocked by D.J. Shelton to secure the win for the Cougars.

Game Notes

Game 3, if necessary, will be played in Pittsburgh on Friday...Washington State shot 51.2 percent (22-of-43) from the field, including 9-of-15 from three-point range, while holding Pittsburgh to 44.4 percent (24-of-54) overall and 10-of-20 from beyond the arc...Patterson and Zanna finished with nine and seven points, respectively.