Washington St. will be the last Pac-12 men's basketball team playing this season, after Pitt evened the CBI Championship series at a game apiece last night. Stanford plays Minnesota this afternoon at 4 PM (PDT) in the NIT Championship, so the Cougars will be the last Pac team to play when they take on the Panthers in Friday's deciding game of the CBI best of 3 series.
The Cougars have been playing without their leading scorer, Brock Motum, since early in their win at Oregon St., due to a sprained right ankle, and last night, the Panthers were without their leading scorer, Ashton Gibbs, as well, also due to ankle problems.
But Pitt got 14 points from Talib Zanna off the bench, and held Washington St.'s Abe Lodwick, who has picked up most of the slack for Motum, to just 9 points. It was enough to overcome a game high 18 points by the Cougars' Reggie Moore, and the Panthers pulled out a 57-53 win that wasn't without controversy.
It remains unknown whether either Gibbs or Motum will make an appearance in Friday night's decisive game, which will also be on the Pitt campus, though you would think it will be worth gambling whole role of tape to see if either team's best player can make a contribution of any sort.
Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com