• UW 67, WSU 60
The Washington Huskies opened their game Saturday by celebrating Senior Day, which happens every year. And they ended it by celebrating an outright conference championship, which hadn’t happened in 56 years.
• Guards exchange words
• Now, the Pac-10 tourney
Between the bittersweet honoring of this season’s senior class and joyous cutting of the nets, there were 40 minutes of grueling, high-intensity basketball.
When the final second of the regular season ticked away, the Huskies had a 67-60 win over rival Washington State and their first outright conference title since 1953.
The players hugged. Hundreds of fans swarmed the Hec Edmundson Pavilion court. A ladder was brought out, and the Huskies snipped away pieces of he nets, leaving the last strand for coach Lorenzo Romar. Finally, Romar took the public-address microphone and addressed the crowd.
“We worked really hard,” he said. “We had great leadership. We had a commitment from 13 guys to be a team no matter what. … This is a great great day for us, our program. I can’t tell you how happy I am for all of you to share it with us. For these guys to (win) a Pac-10 championship is something that’s very special. This is a great day. We are going to really really enjoy this, but we still have some work to do.”
The next task is the Pacific-10 Conference tournament this week in Los Angeles, followed by a date in the NCAA tournament the week after that.
Washington (24-7 overall, 14-4 Pac-10) will begin conference tournament play at 2:30 p.m. Thursday against the winner of the Wednesday game between No. 8 seed Oregon State and No. 9 seed Stanford.
Washington State (16-14, 8-10) finished seventh in the league, which means the Cougars are paired against 10th-seeded Oregon at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday.
That game takes on special importance for the Cougars because the loss Saturday likely means their only remaining path to the NCAA tournament is winning the automatic berth that comes with the Pac-10 tournament title.
“Every time you lose, it hurts,” said WSU senior Taylor Rochestie. “Of course, you want to beat your rival. Of course, you don’t want to lose in the NCAA tournament. You never want to lose. Bottom line is, you want to win, and tonight we didn’t.”
After a back-and-forth beginning, the Huskies took the lead about four and a half minutes before halftime and never surrendered it. However, they also were never quite able to create comfortable breathing room until the final seconds.
Rochestie led all scorers with 23 points, despite spirited harassment and commentary from UW sophomore Venoy Overton. WSU senior center Aron Baynes added 16 points and 11 rebounds. But no other Cougar scored in double-figures nor topped five rebounds.
Meanwhile, the Huskies flashed the kind of balance that typified their championship run: Quincy Pondexter led the way with 16 points. Overton contributed 14 points and an aggressive defensive effort against Rochestie. Dentmon had 12 points and a couple of steals. Brockman’s seven points were less than half his season average, but he grabbed 18 rebounds.
“It’s a team game,” Pondexter said. “I remember at the beginning of the year, Coach asked us, ‘Who is the star of the team?’ People were thinking about the question, and his answer was, ‘It’s the team. All of us are the stars of the team, and we’ve got to play like a team to win a championship.’ ”
The Huskies needed to beat the Cougars to accomplish that goal because three-time defending champion UCLA kept the pressure on Saturday by defeating Oregon just before the Huskies took the court.
After Washington rose to the challenge, Romar called it the highlight of his head coaching career.
“No question about it,” he said. “… I don’t think many would have predicted that we’d be outright Pac-10 champions this year. That makes is special. And then again, it was over an 18-game period where we can look back and not feel it was something we just fell into – I thought we did a pretty good job all season. That’s what makes it really gratifying; along with these are good kids on our team. You want to see them be rewarded for trying to do the right thing.”
Don Ruiz, 253-597-8808
blogs.thenewstribune.com/uwsports
HUSKIES IN REVIEW
Washington 67, Washington State 60
Star of the game
UW senior Jon Brockman was limited to seven points, less than half his season average. However – as much as other Huskies did throughout their Pac-10 championship run – he found other ways to contribute, most notably by grabbing a game-high 18 rebounds.
Key stats
The Cougars hit only eight of 27 shots in the first half (29.6 percent) – even after they hit four of their first five. … UW shot 52 percent in the second half. … The Huskies outrebounded the Cougars, 40-28. … UW overcame a six-point, 3-for-11 shooting performance by leading scorer Isaiah Thomas.
Key run
With about three minutes to go, Quincy Pondexter made a jumper, then scored on a layup after a Brockman steal. The back-to-back buckets increased a two-point lead to six.
Observations
This was the Huskies’ first outright Pac-10 title ever and their first outright conference title since 1953. … The win ended a three-season run of regular season Pac-10 championships by UCLA. … Washington State finished the regular season seventh in the conference. … UW seniors Brockman, Justin Dentmon and Artem Wallace were honored before their final game at Hec Edmundson Pavilion.
Quotable
“Hey, Washington, my gosh. Coach Romar, congratulations. High-level team. In this joint, this place, it gets loud and they feed off that. It’s a frenzy. It affects a lot of things, I’ll just put it that way.” – WSU coach Tony Bennett.
Next
Both teams go on to the Pac-10 tournament, which runs Wednesday through Saturday at Staples Center in Los Angeles. The Cougars will meet No. 10 seed Oregon at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday. The Huskies will play at 2:30 p.m. Thursday against the winner of the Wednesday game between No. 8 seed Oregon State and No. 9 seed Stanford.
Don Ruiz, The News Tribune
