It was the best brand of basketball Pullman’s seen in almost a decade.

Washington State’s 2019-20 season represented new hope for a program that’d been idle for several years before. Under sharp, analytics-minded first-year coach Kyle Smith, the Cougars went 16-16, won a Pac-12 tournament game for the first time in 11 years, and compiled several more memorable occasions during what appears to be a fresh starting point for program prosperity.

To put a capper on the season, which was cut short amid concerns about the spread of the coronavirus, here is a countdown of Wazzu’s top moments from this season:

No. 5: The first of many

The top scorers were struggling, and the Cougs — seeking Smith’s first league win — were down 11 points midway through the second half of a Jan. 4 game in Pullman vs. UCLA.

So Smith, savvy with his lineups, switched up his defense, and put some offensive onus on freshmen Noah Williams and Ryan Rapp.

All of it worked. WSU sprung back unexpectedly, utilizing unanticipated means. And the scorers got involved at last. Star forward CJ Elleby forced overtime with a game-tying corner 3-pointer, then Casper College (Wyo.) transfer guard Isaac Bonton scored eight points in four minutes to lead the Cougs to a 79-71 win — a statement win, a signature win, and Smith’s first in the Pac-12.

No. 4: “This is (our) city”

For the first time in three years, the Cougars owned the Huskies on both sides of the state.

Following the crowd-delighting direction of former coach George Raveling (1972-83) — a captivating figure who had his name hung in the rafters at halftime — and a career-high 34 points from Elleby, Wazzu handled Washington 79-67 in Pullman. Three weeks later, on a wild night of combative energy and twists and turns, the Seattleite duo of Elleby and Williams, along with Portland’s Bonton, took UW down 78-74.

Elleby notched his 2,000th career point with a 3 from the Space Needle painted on the court at Hec Edmundson Pavilion, and Williams celebrated his birthday by nailing clinching free throws. He responded to the “U-Dub reject” chants from the student section with a “This is my city,” after the buzzer sounded. WSU’s first league road win of the season sent the team into the conference tournament with momentum that’d been hard to find in previous away games.

No. 3: Duck call

The eighth-ranked Oregon Ducks were in town. Meanwhile, three of WSU’s key contributors were sidelined with injuries, and the Cougs were coming off an ugly Bay Area road trip.

But at a well-attended Beasley Coliseum two days before storied alumnus Klay Thompson returned home, the Ducks hit a wall in WSU’s resilient defense and another massive outing from Elleby.

WSU cued the buzz with a 72-61 stunner — its first win against a top-10 team since 2007 vs. Arizona — against the Pac-12’s reigning champs.

It was Smith’s finest win of his career, and a victory that was featured prominently on ESPN’s late-night coverage. The Cougars went down by seven early, but shot back with a 16-2 run, then led for 26 minutes, locking down league MVP Payton Pritchard, forcing takeaways in spades, defending the perimeter efficiently and shooting 52.4 percent from deep to retain control.

Elleby, who finished with 25 points and 14 rebounds, also had a couple of the year’s top quotes:

“I think I’m a cousin of the Splash Brothers. I’ll fit right in,” and “We haven’t been given much respect, but it’s not to be given, it’s to be earned. I think we gotta go out every night and take it, take what’s ours.”

No. 2: The last winners

Montana transfer Tony Miller made certain college basketball’s final game of the season had a nice bow on top.

The junior forward, who’d missed a month in the middle of the year with an injury, took a cross-key bounce pass from post Jeff Pollard, then rose up, hanging high off the floor while palming the ball in his fully outstretched right hand. Miller put 6-foot-8, 262-pound Colorado forward Evan Battey on a poster, fashioning a must-see highlight and stretching the Cougs’ lead to 22 points late in an eventual 82-68 first-round Pac-12 tournament win March 11 in Las Vegas — the night before the majority of NCAA conferences scrapped their league tourneys because of concerns about the coronavirus.

Wazzu, which lost to the Buffs by 22 points on Jan. 23, was a considerable underdog that night. But there’d been a fresh swagger and confidence to this team in weighty games, and it felt like as good a time as any for the Cougars to finally earn a victory in the league tournament — they hadn’t won one since 2009, under coach Tony Bennett.

NBA prospect Elleby shined with six 3s and 30 points to spearhead a WSU team that dominated from start to finish, and sent its season out blooming with hope. In the second round, the Cougs would’ve played Arizona State, a team they topped at home earlier in the year on a stepback 3 from Elleby.

No. 1: Klay Day

Klay Thompson’s jersey retirement game Jan. 18 against Oregon State will forever be remembered as one of the best days to be a Coug, regardless of sport or year.

With Thompson on the sideline, applauding every positive WSU possession — and with Golden State Splash Brother Stephen Curry doing much of the same — it felt like losing was an impossibility.

Bonton nailed a near-halfcourt shot at the halftime buzzer to set the tone. Surrounded by friends, family and past teammates, Thompson then gave an endearing speech to the largest Beasley crowd in nine years (10,380), almost all of them sporting the NBA star’s memorabilia.

Wazzu rolled in the second half en route to a 89-76 win. Afterward, the Cougs posed in front of the new No. 1 banner with Thompson, one of the sport’s best all-time shooters and WSU’s most famous alumnus (2008-11). Bonton held the game ball after logging 34 points, eight boards and eight assists.

The day represented restored interest in a long-dormant program. Its must-see moments will presumably be plastered throughout highlight reels for years to come, and it was a prime example that the Cougars are trending upward.

“That’s what I told (the Cougar players), is just, ‘Enjoy these moments, immerse yourself in the city and your team, and try to be as present as you can, ’cause it goes by like that,’” Thompson said.

Clark may be reached at cclark@lmtribune.com, on Twitter @ClarkTrib or by phone at (208) 848-2260.