UA wins ugly against Cougars

Charles C. Labenz Arizona Daily Wildcat UA sophomore forward Eugene Edgerson (33) goes for the rebound in the second half of Saturday's game against Washington State University. Edgerson and the Wildcats beat WSU 83-61.

It was a basketball contest so lacking in excitement that it caused one media member to quip that "if it were a horse it would have been shot."

Still, Arizona did what it had to do to earn an 83-61 victory over Washington State Saturday night in front of 14, 536 at McKale Center.

How bad was it? At one point in the first half, the Wildcats went 4:49 without a field goal, prompting one fan in the first row to joke that "it was their longest drought since 1979."

Arizona and Washington State combined to shoot 43 percent from the field. UA committed 16 turnovers, the Cougars, 19.

"We had to really work to get some of our baskets," Arizona head coach Lute Olson said. "I think that sometimes we do not give the other team enough credit for coming in here and playing well."

True, the Cougars were able to control the tempo of the game. A lack of offense, however, kept them from making any real run at the fourth-ranked Wildcats.

Leif Nelson's jumper at the buzzer was the only thing that kept Washington State from its lowest point output.

"What you have to do to beat them, we don't have that," WSU coach Kevin Eastman said.

One of the highlights for the Wildcats was the play of Eugene Edgerson. The sophomore forward, who said lately he has lacked what he called "the Gene spirit," scored just one point but grabbed a career-high 13 rebounds.

"Gene, with 13 rebounds in 21 minutes, he can't play much better than that," Olson said.

If lacking the Gene spirit constitutes a mental funk, Arizona assistant coach Phil Johnson said he hasn't seen it in Edgerson's play.

"I don't think he's been in a funk at all," Johnson said. "He always comes to battle. We didn't recruit him to score but he impacts the game like a 25-point scorer."

To compliment his rebounding effort, Edgerson shut down Cougar leading scorer Carlos Daniel, who had 14 points but made just 3 of 13 from the field.

And proving that he is in fact human, Arizona senior Michael Dickerson followed up his 11 for 11 second half on Thursday night by going 8 for 17 and scoring 19 points. Senior Miles Simon also had 19.

Jason Terry continued to provide the spark plug the Wildcats need in games like this. He came off the bench to score 15 and record five assists.

"I just try to get them going when they're down," said Terry, who entered the game with UA down 8-7 and helped them to a 16-10 lead. "I just try to make an impact."

"J.T. really pushed the ball and made a lot of things happen," Olson said.

Kojo Mensah-Bonsu was the only other Cougar in double figures with 12 points.

Historically, the game held some significance for the Wildcats. The victory was No. 1,300 in the 93-year history of Wildcat basketball. It was the 21st of this year, though, as UA ran its record to 21-3 overall, 11-0 in the Pacific 10 Conference. The Wildcat winning streak now stands at 14.

Washington State fell to 8-14 overall and 1-10 in the conference. The current seven-game losing streak is the school's longest since 1992-93.