Pacific 10 Roundup : Cook Becomes Consistent, Leads Arizona Past Oregon

Anthony Cook has been working on his consistency. It showed Saturday as the 6-foot 9-inch Arizona forward had his second straight 20-point game during the 12th-ranked Wildcats’ 95-71 rout of Oregon at Tucson, Ariz.

Arizona improved to 11-2 overall and 6-1 in the Pacific 10 Conference, while Oregon fell to 6-8, 1-3.

“Earlier this week, Coach (Lute) Olson had conferences with all the upperclassmen,” said Cook, who made 9 of 13 shots and scored 23 points.

“He told me that I had to be more consistent. In the games we lost, I didn’t play well (5 points against North Carolina and 12 against Stanford). So, I’ve worked hard on being consistent.”

Cook scored 20 points Thursday night in Arizona’s 85-64 victory over Oregon State.

Meanwhile, Olson was pleased with the play of his 4 guards, who combined for 42 points, led by freshman Matt Othick with 15. Othick hit on 2 of 3 3-pointers, while Kenny Lofton was 3 for 5 on 3-pointers, and Matt Muehlebach, who had 13 points, was 2 for 2.

Arizona led, 46-26, at halftime and built a 25-point lead at 62-37 on Cook’s dunk, but the Ducks came back with 10 points in a row, capped by Brett Coffey’s dunk with 12:40 left, to pull within 62-47.

For the second straight game, All-American Sean Elliott was limited to 11 points, but he said he isn’t worried.

“Right now, they (his teammates) aren’t looking for me as much. And that’s fine. We’re playing good basketball as a team, so I don’t think I’m in a slump,” said Elliott, who moved into third place in Pac-10 career scoring with 2,090 points, surpassing Ron Lee of Oregon, who scored 2,085.

Oregon State 85, Arizona State 65--Gary Payton scored 17 of his 24 points in the first half as Oregon State gave Coach Ralph Miller his 662nd career victory by beating the Sun Devils at Tempe, Ariz.

Oregon State (10-4, 3-3) went ahead to stay at 14-4 after a 10-0 run 5:07 into the game. The Beavers reeled off runs of 8-0, 9-4 and 8-2 and took a 22-point lead on Payton’s jumper with 1:10 left.

Arizona State (8-6, 2-4) lost for the fourth time in its last 5 games.

Miller, 69, who is retiring after this, his 38th college season and 19th at Oregon State, has a 662-367 record and is 5 wins shy of tying John Wooden for sixth place on the all-time NCAA victory list.

Stanford 85, Washington State 43--Todd Lichti scored 21 points to lead 4 Cardinal players in double figures as Stanford handed the Cougars their worst loss in 24 years.

Washington State’s previous worst defeat was by a 93-41 score at UCLA in 1965. The Cougars’ previous worst loss to Stanford was by 36 points, 84-48, in 1964.

The Cardinal (12-3, 5-1) extended its winning streak to 7 games.

Stanford scored the first 13 points of the game and was never headed. The first points for Washington State (6-8, 1-4) came after 6:03 on Brian Quinnett’s 3-point shot.