No. 22 Wazzu brushes asides Stanford in Pac-12 quarters

Field Level Media|published: Thu 14th March, 23:34 2024

Mar 14, 2024; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Washington State Cougars forward Andrej Jakimovski (23) celebrates after a three-point basket against the Stanford Cardinal in the first half att T-Mobile Arena. credits: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

LAS VEGAS — Isaac Jones led a balanced scoring effort with 16 points in No. 22 Washington State's 79-62 victory over Stanford in a Pac-12 tournament quarterfinal on Thursday.

The second-seeded Cougars (24-8) will play in a semifinal Friday against the winner of the Thursday night game between sixth-seeded Utah and third-seeded Colorado.

Jones added six rebounds against 10th-seeded Stanford (14-18).

Washington State's Myles Rice had 14 points, six assists and six rebounds while Jaylen Wells finished with 14 points, six rebounds, five assists and three steals.

Andrej Jakimovski, listed as questionable by the Cougars before the game due to right shoulder soreness, finished with 13 points. Kymany Houinsou had 11 points and Rueben Chinyelu scored 10 while making all four his field-goal attempts.

Stanford was led by Spencer Jones' 22 points plus Brandon Angel's 15 points and six rebounds.

Washington State went 3-0 against Stanford this season with an average margin of victory of 14.7 points.

The Cougars took control of the game when they went on a 13-3 run to open a 37-22 lead with 6:04 left in the first half. Jakimovski made two 3-pointers in that stretch. He had 11 points and four rebounds in the first half, leading the Cougars to a 45-29 halftime lead.

Five other Washington State players had at least six points by halftime.

Angel scored 12 points and Michael Jones had nine in the first half for Stanford.

The Cougars outscored Stanford 8-2 to start the second half to take a 53-31 lead with 16:35 remaining.

Spencer Jones made a layup with 9:23 remaining to cut the deficit to 62-48, but the Cougars responded by scoring seven unanswered points.

Rice's layup with 7:22 left gave Washington State a 69-48 lead.

Washington State was up by at least 17 points the rest of the game.

The Cougars made 50.8 percent of their shots from the field and outrebounded Stanford 39-25.

Washington State had 17 fast-break points while Stanford managed just two.

—Javier Morales, Field Level Media

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