Bamba-Led Cougars Spoil Festivities, Sweep Season Series From UW

WSU guard has career-high night in regular-season finale.

On what was supposed to be a celebratory night at Alaska Airlines Arena, the University of Washington basketball team suffered from start to finish. 

After a handful of outgoing Huskies received framed gold jerseys and a high-five from Mike Hopkins on Senior Night, they got punched in the face. 

When it was all over on Thursday night, the UW was a 93-84 loser to Washington State, swept by the Cougars on the season and left to limp into the Pac-12 tournament. 

In this outing before a sellout crowd, WSU junior guard TJ Bamba should have been the one showered with gifts after he scored a career-high 36 points, exceeding his previous best by 12, on 13-for-20 shooting.

"La Bamba went on a stretch himself where we couldn't stop him," Husky forward Keion Brooks said, either purposely or knowingly referencing a Ritchie Valens' classic song.

Another player who had his way with the UW was 6-foot-8 junior forward Andej Jakimovski, who worked the glass for a career-best 17 rebounds to go with 12 points.

Unable to get a man on either one of these guys, let alone build any overall momentum over 31 outings, Hopkins' chances of coaching a seventh season in Montlake next year looked more and more dubious.

The season's not over for these Huskies (16-15 overall, 8-12 Pac-12) — it just feels like it.

Against the Cougars (16-15, 11-9), who put just one senior on the floor, and it was a guy who was a combo football player, the UW was a team that lost for the fifth time in its last eight outings while its rival never trailed and won for the sixth consecutive outing. 

Mouhamed Gueye dunks on the Huskies' Cole Bajema :: Joe Nicholson/USA TODAY Sports

The Huskies now head to next week's conference tournament where they'll play in the first game of the opening round on Wednesday against either Stanford (13-17, 7-12) or Colorado (15-15, 7-12).

Six minutes into the this regular-season close-out against WSU, the Huskies must have felt like all of those graduation gifts had been confiscated and left shattered all over the floor.

They trailed a demoralizing 19-3 after the Cougars' Justin Powell, a 6-foot-6 junior guard from Kentucky who previously played for Tennessee and Auburn, dropped in three early 3-pointers.

TJ Bamba of the Cougars was difficult to stop at Alaska Airlines Arena with a career-best 36 points :: Joe Nicholson/USA TODAY Sports

For the rest of the half, the UW was left to play catch-up and Hopkins' guys settled in and made it a game. It took nine minutes, but the Huskies were able to creep within four points, at 30-26, when freshman guard Koren Johnson sank a 3-pointer. 

While Powell was the early instigator, Bamba took over  as the long-term problem. The 6-foot-5 guard from the Bronx in New York supplied 16 first-half points on 7-for-11 shooting as WSU took a 42-37 lead into the locker room.

"We're just figuring it out," Bamba said in a TV interview.

In the second half, the UW got no closer than six, at 57-51, when Jamal Bey sank a 3-pointer with 13:24 left. The home team was topped by Brooks' 22 points while Bey had 17.

"It's sad, one because it's my last one here — and I couldn't get a win," said Bey, referring to his home court. 

The exclamation mark on this one came with 2:15 remaining when the Cougars' 6-foot-11 sophomore Mouhamed Gueye powered his way to the hoop and emphatically slammed one through, ending up on the floor after getting fouled. His three-point play put WSU up 89-74 and left everything moot thereafter.

Gueye, who finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds, should have had his jersey bronzed and framed on the spot.

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