Cougs call on wobbly Huskies

PULLMAN - By the looks of it, the Washington State Cougars have their hated rivals from across the state right where they want them: in the doghouse and down for the count.

But the surging Cougars, coming off their first conference road win in two years, know better than to think the slumming Washington Huskies have lost their appetite completely despite a three-game skid.

"They're going to try to put us out early so we're going to have to get ready for the battle," said WSU senior DaVonte Lacy, a veteran when it comes to this particular game.

The Cougars (7-7, 1-1) and Huskies (11-3, 0-2) will meet at noon today at Seattle for the 279th edition of the Apple Cup on the hardwood - a matchup that has caught some additional intrigue thanks to UW's recent slide.

Or maybe more so because of WSU's upset win at Cal on Sunday, though first-year Cougar coach Ernie Kent suggests, "It's just one game."

And regarding today's opponent?

"They have all the ingredients that they need to be successful," said Kent, who spent eight years coaching on the opposite sideline of UW's Lorenzo Romar while at Oregon.

Still, it has to be a sigh of relief for WSU knowing Romar's 2014-15 team is human. After an 11-0 start, UW has dropped three consecutive games starting with a Dec. 28 loss to Stony Brook, which earned $100,000 to visit the Pacific Northwest and supposedly provide the Huskies with one final tune-up game before conference play.

Instead, the game gave UW a good idea of what it would see during the opening weekend of Pac-12 action - losses to both Cal and Stanford, which booted the previously No. 13 ranked Huskies from the Top 25 rankings.

Suddenly, today's game becomes crucial for the Huskies, who will want to jump back into the national picture and avoid a rare home loss to the Cougars, who haven't won in Seattle since 2010-11.

"The answer may sound like a cliché, probably is, but it's accurate," Romar told Seattle media Thursday, asked about the weight of today's game. "It is a home game, it is a Pac-12 game, it is our next game. So it's very, very important."

Lacy was in attendance last time the Cougars won west of the Cascades, but only as a spectator. WSU's leading scorer, from nearby Tacoma, has never won at the Alaska Airlines Arena as a player.

"Of course Washington's always circled on my calendar," Lacy said. But beating the Huskies in his backyard - the last time he'll play in Seattle - isn't what's fueling Lacy this time around.

"It's huge for us as a team, not just me personally," said Lacy, whose 16.4 points-per-game average is a drop from the 19.4 he averaged last year.

"There's a difference between 2-1 and 1-2, so we want to go 2-1."

To do so, WSU will have to eliminate, or at least reduce the presence of the nation's leading shot-blocker - UW junior Robert Upshaw.

The 7-footer stuffs 4.57 shots per game, dwarfing his other numbers (11.1 ppg, 7.6 rpg).

"It's surprising when you see a center the caliber of Upshaw sitting in there," said WSU coach Ernie Kent, "so that part of it is a good thing for us, although sometimes when you get in the heat of the battle people don't realize how good he is."

Still, the Cougars like the matchup especially considering the progress they've seen from senior Jordan Railey of late.

In Sunday's win over Cal, Railey posted a career-high 17 points and showed some previously unseen finesse around the rim when he bucketed a crucial hook shot late in the game.

"Not only did he want the ball but they gave him the ball and he did something with the ball," Kent said of Railey's shot. "All of those are huge growing opportunities for a team like us that is still trying to find ourselves and I thought it was a special moment for him to hit that shot because that gives him the opportunity to have even more confidence in himself."

The Huskies will have their hands full with WSU sophomore Josh Hawkinson, another product of the Seattle suburbs (Shoreline) who's going on six consecutive double-doubles and has recorded nine total this season.

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Lawson may be contacted at tlawson@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2260. Follow him on Twitter @TheoLawson_Trib.