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Low, Washington St. rout struggling Washington

Jan 21, 2007 - 4:15 AM PULLMAN, Washington (Ticker) -- With its intrastate rival now unranked and struggling, Derrick Low and Washington State pounced.

Low scored 20 points and Kyle Weaver added a season-high 17 as the No. 21 Cougars took advantage of a miserable start by Washington en route to a 75-47 rout in a Pac-10 Conference contest.

Unlike the previous five meetings in the series, the Huskies (11-7, 1-6 Pac-10) were not among the nation's top-25 teams. The main reason for Washington's omittance is its struggles on the road, dropping the previous five games.

Those problems continued as the Huskies mustered their lowest scoring output in the first half with 23 points, shooting just 31 percent (8-of-26) from the field.

That was the lowest first-half point total for Washington since being held to 19 in a 79-70 win over Wyoming on December 6, 2003.

Meanwhile, Washington State (16-3, 5-2) nearly took full advantage, grabbing an 11-point lead at the half. The margin could have been much bigger had Washington not finished with an 11-2 spurt.

The letup at the end of the first half did not rattle the Cougars, who bounced back from a 71-68 overtime loss at Stanford that halted their four-game winning streak.

"I think we have the ability to not get too up or too down," Washington State coach Tony Bennett said.

Ivory Clark, who finished with 10 points, got the Cougars back on track in the second half, recording a follow shot and a dunk in the opening moments.

Low, who finished 5-of-7 on 3-pointers, scored his team's next 11 points, extending the lead to 49-27 on his second straight shot from the arc with 15:27 left.

Washington State, which captured its third straight win in the series, eventually pushed the lead to 35 points with 3:23 remaining.

In the end, the Cougars finished with their largest margin of victory against the Huskies. It was also the school's biggest win since a 101-64 win against Oregon State here on February 17, 1994.

Washington actually shot worse in the second half, going 7-of-25 (26 percent) to finish 28 percent (15-of-53) for the contest.

"We made some mental mistakes in the second half," Washington coach Lorenzo Romar said. "With a young team, it's hard to regroup at that point."

Weaver also had eight rebounds and Robbie Cowgill added seven and six rebounds for Washington State, which finished 53.6 percent (30-of-56) from the field, including 7-of-14 on 3-pointers.

"Our defense wasn't very good," Romar said. "Theirs was fantastic."

Freshman Quincy Pondexter scored 16 points and Jon Brockman 13 for the Huskies, who played without star freshman center Spencer Hawes because of an ankle injury.

Without the 15.2 points from Hawes, Washington's starting five was nearly punchless, getting outscored by Washington State's 59-22. Three of the Huskies' starters failed to score, with freshmen Phil Nelson and Adrian Oliver and sophomore Artem Wallace going 0-of-8 from the field in 48 minutes.