PULLMAN, Wash. -- Washington State defeated California, 84-65, Thursday night in Beasley Coliseum to improve to 19-6 and 12-1 at home. The Cougars extend their record to 9-1 over the last 10 games, the first time they've reached this mark in Pac-12 play and most successful 10-game Conference stretch since the end of the 1944-1945 season. 

Standout redshirt-freshman Myles Rice led the game with 25 points on an efficient 9 of 16 shooting, five rebounds, and grabbed three steals. Andrej Jakimovski and Jaylen Wells both had 12 points. 

Issac Jones had 21 points on 8 of 10 shooting and grabbed a team-high nine rebounds in a dominate performance.  

"I just wanted it more than them," Jones said postgame when describing his attitude in the victory. 

Jones, Oscar Cluff, and Rueben Chinyelu put an emphasis on controlling the paint. In the last meeting between the programs, Cal outrebounded and outscored the Cougs in the paint. Tonight, Jones and company made sure that did not happen again. The Cougars outscored Cal 40-24 in the paint and outrebounded 39-28. Cal's Fardaws Aimaq had 18 in the last meeting, however, the Wazzu big men held him to just one field goal tonight and six points. 

Cal's Jaylon Tyson scored the opening basket, looking to build on his 30-point performance last time the teams met. However, Washington State responded quickly and marched out to a 10-2 lead. The Cougars established a lead early Thursday night, after trailing most of the game in the previous meeting. Cal fought back, cutting into the lead before the Cougars began to pull away again as the first half neared its end. With 3:36 left to play in the first half, Rice got free in the fast break and gave Wazzu a 27-19 lead, fueling a 17-7 run to close the first half. 

Washington State exited the first half with a 36-24 lead. Rice had a first-half-high of 10 points and grabbed two steals. Wells and Jones also added seven points each in the opening period. The Cougars had a strong defensive showing early, holding Cal to just 24 points on 32% shooting from the field. 

The Cougars kept their momentum going into the second half and came out on another run. With 15:17 left to play, Jones got to the rim for an and-one to give Wazzu a 51-33 lead. However, Tyson and Keyonte Kennedy also came out hot and combined for 11 in the first seven minutes of the second half. Despite Cal stringing together some offense, the Bears had no answer to stop the Cougar offense. Wazzu added to its lead with 12:16 left to play when Myles Rice nailed a deep 3-pointer to give the Cougars a 19-point lead. 

With Cal struggling to string together stops on the defensive side of the ball, Jones and Rice started taking over. In the opening 12 minutes of the second half, Jones had 14 points and Rice 13 on perfect 5 of 5 shooting. The Cougars maintained a 20-point lead for the remainder of the contest. 

Washington State won its sixth-straight game and will take on Stanford this Saturday, in Beasley with tipoff scheduled for 3 p.m. PT.