SEATTLE — TJ Bamba scored a career-high 36 points, Andrej Jakimovski added a double-double and Washington State won its sixth straight Pac-12 Conference game for the first time in 30 years with a 93-84 victory over Washington on Thursday night.
Bamba, a junior, made 13 of 20 shots with three 3-pointers and all seven of his free throws for the Cougars (16-15, 11-9 Pac-12 Conference). Jakimovski scored 12 points and grabbed a career-best 17 rebounds. DJ Rodman pitched in with 16 points, seven rebounds and five assists, also drawing his 27th charge of the season. Sophomore Mouhamed Gueye finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds for his 15th double-double this season. Justin Powell had 11 points and four assists.
Keion Brooks Jr. scored 22 points to pace the Huskies (16-15, 8-12). Jamal Bey, who has played in a team-record 149 games, made all three of his 3-pointers and scored 17. Koren Johnson had 13 points off the bench. Keyon Menifield added 11 points and five assists, while Braxton Meah contributed 10 points and six boards.
Powell sank all three of his 3-point attempts and Washington State jumped out to a 19-3 lead at the 13:56 mark. Brooks scored 11 points from there to pull Washington within 42-37 at halftime. Bamba had 16 points on 7-of-11 shooting with two 3-pointers before intermission.
Bamba buried a 3-pointer to open the second half, Rodman and Jakimovski also hit from beyond the arc, and Bamba nailed a jumper to give the Cougars a 57-45 lead at the 15:01 mark.
The Huskies closed to within six points twice, the last at 69-63 on Johnson's basket with 12:49 left to play. Rodman answered with a 3-pointer and Washington would get no closer. Gueye's three-point play that started with a highlight-reel dunk over Huskies' 7-footer Meah gave the Cougars an 89-74 lead with 2:15 remaining, putting an exclamation point on a season sweep over their instate rival.
The Cougars, who lead the conference averaging 8.9 3-pointers per game, sank 12 of 29 (41%) and shot 51% overall. The Huskies made half of their 64 shots and 9 of 20 from distance.
Kelvin Sampson was the coach and future NBA player and MLB pitcher Mark Hendrickson was a freshman on the last Cougars team to win six straight games in conference play. It's happened just five times in program history.
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