Washington State stifles Stanford

No. 14 Washington State used a smothering defense to defeat No. 25 Stanford, 58-45, Thursday night at Pullman, Wash., to reach 20 wins for the first time since the 1993-94 season.

The Cougars, 20-4 overall and 9-3 in the Pacific 10 Conference, are in second place, one game behind UCLA.

Stanford (15-7, 7-4) shot only 28%, had 12 shots blocked and committed 15 turnovers in posting a season-low score. The Cardinal came in averaging 72 points.

Stanford beat Washington State, 71-68, in overtime earlier this season, and had won three in a row against the Cougars. But the Cardinal scored only eight points over the final 8:40 of the first half and the first 10 1/2 minutes of the second half.

No. 13 Oregon 55, Arizona State 51 -- The Sun Devils (6-17, 0-12) came close to pulling the upset at Eugene, Ore. They outscored the Ducks, 21-9, in the first 10:26 of the second half to tie the score at 42-42.

Oregon (20-4, 8-4) scored the next five points, and a three-point basket by Maarty Leunen with just under five minutes left gave the Ducks a 50-44 lead.

Oregon’s Aaron Brooks, who started the game as the Pac-10’s leading scorer at 20.8 points, equaled his season-low with five points on one-of-eight shooting.

No. 24 Arizona 72, Oregon State 66 -- Marcus Williams scored 23 points, and Ivan Radenovic had 19, making 13 of 16 free throws, to lead the Wildcats (16-7, 7-5) at Corvallis, Ore. Sasa Cuic scored 25 points for the Beavers (9-16, 1-11), who have lost seven games in a row and appear to be on their way to a 16th non-winning season in 17 years.

Washington 79, California 71 -- Jon Brockman had 22 points -- 17 in the second half -- and 14 rebounds to lead the Huskies (15-8, 5-7) past the slumping Golden Bears at Seattle. Ayinde Ubaka, playing despite an intestinal virus, scored 20 points for the Bears (12-11, 4-7), who lost their fifth game in a row.