PULLMAN — Ty Abbott scored 18 points and had nine rebounds as Arizona State beat Washington State 81-70 on Thursday.
Derek Glasser added 15 points as Arizona State (16-7, 6-4 Pac-10) beat the Cougars for the second time this season.
Washington State (14-8, 4-6) was led by Klay Thompson, who scored 20 points and had a career-high six steals. The Cougars had 11 steals in the game.
Arizona State nearly lost a 17-point lead in the second half when the Cougars went on a 25-10 run cutting the Sun Devils’ lead to 59-55 with just over seven minutes to play.
Washington State forced nine turnovers in the second half and 17 for the game.
“I thought they (Washington State) did a nice job coming back. I thought the crowd gave them a lot of energy and that helped with the fight,” said Arizona State coach Herb Sendek. “At that point our guys just locked arms and found a way to stem the tide.”
That four-point margin was as close as the Cougars came. Glasser hit a 3 to put Arizona State back up by seven and the Sun Devils clamped down on defense and relied on the inside play of Abbott, who was 6-for-6 from the free-throw line on Thursday.
Arizona State shot 56.5 percent from the field while Washington State shot 42 percent. The Sun Devils beat the Cougars last month in Tempe, 71-46.
Eric Boateng had 13 points and eight rebounds for the Sun Devils and Trent Lockett scored 10. Nikola Koprivica, Marcus Capers and Reggie Moore all scored 13 points for the Cougars, with Capers grabbing a team-high eight rebounds.
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