It took the Arizona men's basketball team the entire first half Saturday to put last week's loss to Washington out of their minds. When they did, the Wildcats put Washington State out of the game and kept their own Pacific 10 Conference title hopes alive.

The No. 14 Wildcats (16-4, 6-3) blitzed the Cougars (9-8, 2-7) in the second half for a 96-78 win in front of 14,390 at McKale Center.

UA was down 40-39 at intermission after a first half that saw UA shoot 42 percent and trail most of the way. But the Wildcats came out to start the second with a 26-8 run over the first eight and a half minutes to take a 65-48 lead and effectively end the game. The Cougars got no closer than 13 the rest of the way.

Arizona is now in a four-way tie for second in the Pac-10 with the Huskies, Cal and Stanford. UCLA (15-5, 8-1) is in first and has a two-game lead.

"We were still feeling the effects of the loss (Thursday), but we had to step up our game," senior forward Corey Williams said. "With the situation we've put ourselves in, we will need all the wins we can and get some help."

Faced with the very real possibility at halftime of losing two straight at home for the first time since head coach Lute Olson's inaugural campaign at Arizona in 1983-84, the team stayed focused.

"It was calm," said assistant Jesse Evans about the UA locker room at the break. "We thought we were doing the detail things, like getting good pressure, but they were just knocking their shots down. We knew that wouldn't last. We just got a little surge to open the half. Basketball is played in surges."

UA's surge was keyed by senior forward Ben Davis, who scored eight of his 20 points during the run while seemingly getting every rebound. He finished with 14 rebounds, one short of his career high. Unlike other games however, Davis was not the only one coming up with the ball. Forwards Joe McLean (six rebounds) and Corey Williams (7), and center A.J. Bramlett (3) were all a part of UA's 47-30 rebound advantage. The Cougars were out-rebounded 25-13 in the second half.

"Their inside guys just played a better all-around game than ours did," said WSU senior forward Mark Hendrickson, who was averaging 17.8 points and 10.2 rebounds before Davis limited him to nine points and five rebounds Saturday. "They got better inside position and they beat us on the boards."

"We have got to get the same type of activity as tonight," Davis said. "I can't get every rebound, I can try."

"I don't know if you can play any better than he did on both ends of the court," Lute Olson said about Davis.

Williams and Michael Dickerson both added 17 points while Bramlett and Reggie Geary contributed 10 each as UA had five players in double figures.

Freshman Jason Terry continued his strong play of late with seven assists and just one turnover.

The Cougars were paced by Isaac Fontaine's 21 points.

It was the same old story for Washington State. The Cougars led the nation last season in field-goal percentage at 51.7 percent, but this year they are shooting at a 45.2 clip. Sat--urday was no different as they shot 45.3 percent.

Now, a team expected to challenge for the conference title finds themselves alone in ninth place.

"College basketball is all momentum and confidence," said WSU coach Kevin Eastman. "We're going through a hard string, but we just have to keep fighting through it."

The goal now for the Wildcats is simple: win out and hope the Bruins falter. UA plays UCLA in Los Angeles Feb. 15.

"Yeah, we have to win out, we can't afford to lose anymore," Geary said. "We have to start treating everybody the same."