Klay Thompson gave it all he could for the Washington State Cougars on Thursday night, but the Washington Huskies had just enough in the tank to squeak by in an 89-87 win at Staples Center. Thompson set a new Pac-10 Tournament scoring record, finishing with 43 of the Cougars 89 points. Despite his efforts, the supporting cast for Washington State wasn't able to break the Washington defense as the Huskies' guards stepped up in critical moments to pull-off the win and advance to the semifinals.
Isaiah Thomas was an iron-man for the Huskies, as expected, playing all 40 minutes and finishing with 21 points and 11 assists. All five starters were in double-figures for the Huskies, with Terrence Ross adding 17, C.J. Wilcox and Matthew Bryan-Amaning adding 16 apiece and Justin Holiday pitching in 12. Holiday had a double-double, grabbing a team-high 10 rebounds.
Thompson carried the Cougars, connecting on 8-14 threes and 15-29 from the field. DeAngelo Casto just missed a double-double, finishing with 13 points and nine rebounds. Faisal Aden added 17 points off the bench. Outside of those three, scoring was few and far between as the Huskies swarming defense slowed the Cougars all night.
For Washington State, hopes of an NCAA Tournament bid are over as the Cougs head hope and await their NIT seeding. Washington likely locked up an NCAA bid and will move on to face Oregon on Friday night.
Here's the full schedule and bracket for Friday's games.
First round: Wednesday, March 9
No. 9 Oregon State Beavers def. No. 8 Stanford Cardinal, 69-67
No. 7 Oregon Ducks def. No. 10 Arizona State Sun Devils, 76-69
Quarterfinals: Thursday, March 10
No. 4 USC Trojans def No. 5 California Golden Bears, 70-56
No. 1 Arizona Wildcats def No. 9 Oregon State, 78-69
No. 7 Oregon Ducks def. No. 2 UCLA Bruins, 76-59
No. 3 Washington Huskies def. No. 6 Washington State Cougs, 89-87
Semifinals: Friday, March 11
USC vs. Arizona, 6 p.m., FSN
Oregon vs. Washington, 8:30 p.m., FSN
Finals: Saturday, March 12
Semifinal winners, 3 p.m., CBS
For more on the tournament, including the latest news and bracket updates, check out the rest of our 2011 Pac-10 tournament StoryStream.