Emotionally Drained Oregon St. Falls to Washington St.

Center Ken Critton had 19 points and 17 rebounds for Washington State in an 81-69 victory over Oregon State on Sunday that completed the Cougars’ first Oregon road sweep since 1983.

The game was postponed from Saturday because the Oregon State team was in Los Angeles for the funeral of teammate Earnest Killum. The 20-year-old sophomore guard from Lynwood High died last Monday, three days after suffering a stroke.

It was the first time in two days the Beavers had touched a basketball and the layoff showed. They shot 39% from the field, including four of 24 from three-point range.

Oregon State (2-4, 10-9) trailed at halftime, 40-30, and was behind by as many as 18 points in the second half.

Neil Derrick scored 18 points for Washington State. Oregon State was led by center Scott Haskin, who had 20 points and 10 rebounds.

“This is a good win but it really has a hollow feeling to it,” Washington State Coach Kelvin Sampson said. “Oregon State has gone through so much and we didn’t play against their best team today. You could tell their kids were down. I thought they played hard and did what they could, but let’s face it, they’ve been through an emotional wringer.”

Haskin said the funeral and the stress of the grief over Killum’s death made it hard to concentrate.

“We’ve had to take care of some very important business,” Haskin said. “It seemed like the lid was on the basket.”