It was the tale of two halves. The Cougars showed their talent and ability in one, but their youth and inexperience in another.

University of Washington Senior Quincy Pondexter led the way for the Huskies with 29 points and 12 rebounds as UW handed WSU its biggest loss of the season, 92-64.

At the start of the first half, it appeared as though the Cougars were going to have their way with the Huskies after the team got off to a hot start and went up 14-3. The Cougars started the game 5-7, while the Huskies shot a poor 1-9.

However, the Huskies managed to get their act together and slowly but surely began chipping away at the WSU advantage.

Eventually, the Huskies took the lead at 32-31 off two Pondexter free throws with 2 and a half minutes left. The Cougars did manage to close the half on a 9-4 run and went into the locker room with a 40-36 lead at the break.

Freshman guard Xavier Thames made his third career start and finished the game leading the Cougars in scoring with a career-high 15 points, with 11 of them coming in the first half.

Senior guard Nikola Koprivica had a double-double by pouring in 13 points (all in the first half) and a team-high 11 rebounds.

Whatever UW Head Coach Lorenzo Romar told his team in the locker room worked because the Huskies came out of the gate hard and strong.

UW went on a 19-2 run to start the second half that had the 10,000 fans rocking at Bank of America Arena.

After shooting 44 percent from the floor in the first half, WSU began 0-13 from the floor. WSU didn’t hit its first shot until nearly the 13-minute mark when sophomore forward DeAngelo Casto finally connected.

“We just didn’t come out as aggressive in the second half,” Thames said. “We didn’t play with the same energy.” Perhaps the biggest difference between both halves was the rebounding advantage. After both teams had 22 rebounds in the first half, UW dominated the paint in the second half by hauling down 30 boards compared to WSU’s 16.

“Our main goal was to control the defensive boards and don’t let them run in transition, and we failed in both of those in the second half,” Koprivica said. “In the first half, we had it under control.” WSU sophomore guard Klay Thompson came into the game tied with Stanford’s Landry Fields as the conference’s top scorer at 22.3 points per game, but he struggled from the floor in his second consecutive outing. Thompson tied his season low with 7 points, finishing with 2-15 shooting.

“I think there were five or six times I was open,” Thompson said. “I’ve just got to make the shot.” In his last two games combined, Thompson has 20 points while shooting 21 percent from the floor.

The Huskies shot lights out in the second half by connecting on 62.5 (20-32) percent of their shots, while the Cougars shot an abysmal 22.9 (8-35) percent off 8-35 from the floor. The Huskies outscored the Cougars 56-24 in the second half leading WSU to its fifth conference loss on the season.

“Give UW all the credit,” WSU Head Coach Ken Bone said. “They pretty much put us in our place.” The Cougars are currently sitting in a three-way tie for fifth place at 4-5 in the conference with Washington and Oregon. The Huskies and the Cougars are both 14-7, while the Ducks are 12-9 overall.

The team will return to Pullman after three-straight road games to host Arizona on Thursday and Arizona State on Saturday.