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No. 17 Washington St. can complete season sweep of Arizona St.

Feb 3, 2007 - 5:42 PM No. 17 Washington St (18-4) at Arizona St (6-15) 7:30 pm EST

TEMPE, Arizona (Ticker) -- The successful influence of Washington State coach Tony Bennett has him mentioned as a national coach of the year contender.

The 17th-ranked Cougars can win for the fourth time in five games and remain in striking distance of first place in the Pac-10 Conference with Saturday's matchup against struggling Arizona State.

In his initial campaign, Bennett opened with seven victories to become the first coach of a current Pac-10 school to accomplish that feat since Stanford's Robert Burnett went 9-0 in 1951-1952.

Washington State (18-4, 7-3 Pac-10) has already clinched its first winning record in 11 seasons and can record its 19th win for the first time since capturing 20 in 1993-1994. The squad is one game behind UCLA for the top spot in the conference.

The Cougars finished their first season sweep of Arizona since 1983 with Thursday's 72-66 victory. Ivory Clark scored 18 points and Derrick Low added 13 for Washington State, which limited the Wildcats to 36 percent (8-of-22) from the floor in the second half.

The season can not end soon enough for the Sun Devils (6-15, 0-10), who have lost 11 consecutive games, including all 10 in Pac-10 play. However, they are yielding an average of 63.9 points, their lowest total since 1949-1950.

Arizona State rally from a 23-point deficit came up short in Thursday's 66-61 defeat to Washington. Christian Polk scored 18 points off the bench for the Sun Devils, who lost coach Herb Sendek when he was ejected with 13:16 remaining.

Washington State won the earlier matchup against Arizona State, 75-55, on January 4. Robbie Cowgill led the Cougars with 16 points, while Jeff Pendergraph had 16 for the Sun Devils.