Gutty

Hello Followers.

Well, on a night where Reggie Moore went down with what looks like a season-ending type ankle injury (I am judging by his look in the brace), the Cougars did their best impression of the 1987 Seattle SuperSonics:  Casto (Chambers) had 24, Thompson (McDaniel) had 22, and Aden (Ellis) had 20. 

In addition, Capers had the loudest 6 points of all time, while Brock and Abe combined for 11.  Meaning, we are now 6-1 in conference when we get 10+ points from both the 3 and the 4 spot.

If you missed the game, the Cougs built a quick double digit lead, stretching the lead up to 17 points (I think) with about 15 minutes left.

However, with about 11 minutes left, Bone substituted in Dre Winston and the wheels came off.  From there, the Trojans rallied behind some hot three point shooting to cut the lead to 1 with about 6 minutes left.

But from there, the Cougs would not be denied.  Klay fouled out Simmons and played like a sure fire NBA prospect.  Faisel, though he went through a brief dry spell in the 2nd half was fantastic, and Marcus Capers was really, really solid at both ends of the court and handled the point guard duties like a champ against some very physical ball pressure.

And then there was Casto– who was simply beyond spectacular:  10-11 from the field and a nice 4-6 from the line.  And even though Vucevik would up with 22, Casto did a wonderful job on him all night.  Amazing job by a guy that has been a first team All Conference type the second half of the season.

So now, we head into Saturday, without our man Reggie.

And in a VERY tragic way, it feels almost fitting:  The team that looked so good early in the year when Reggie was out will be the team that finishes the year.

Judging by UCLA’s performance tonight (they were GREAT until the 3:00 mark), our dreams are going to end on Saturday.

But, with the win tonight, and Oregon’s loss at ASU, we now have avoided the dreaded play-in game in the conference tournament.

What’s more, this team should have clinched an NIT birth with the win.

Onto Saturday.  Great and gutty win by the kids and by Coach Bone.

You made Cougar Nation proud tonight with the heart and effort.