Washington used a second-half rally to pull away from Texas A&M, 73-64, before a sellout crowd at Hec Edmundson Pavilion Tuesday. But the turning point was both unwanted and gruesome. About 21/2 minutes into the second half of a tight contest between the 19th-ranked Aggies and 22nd-ranked Huskies, A&M senior forward Derrick Roland crumpled under the basket with a grotesquely turned lower right leg.
A&M coach Mark Turgeon didn’t even wait for the whistle to blow before running onto the court to tend to his player. He was soon joined by a team of medical personnel.
The game was delayed for about 10 minutes while Roland’s leg was stabilized and he was eventually taken off the court on a stretcher.
While Roland was down, his teammates huddled, some crying. Many fans around the east-end basket turned away.
“That was gruesome,” Washington forward Darnell Gant said. “I was right there when he went down, but I didn’t see it until they said, ‘Is there a doctor? Somebody get a doctor.’ I looked and saw his leg. It was a bad sight to see. … I heard him fall. He didn’t make any noise like screaming or anything so we just kept going.”
Roland, who is considered among the top defenders in the Big 12 Conference, was taken to Harborview Medical Center where his condition was listed as stable. He underwent surgery to repair a broken fibula and tibia.
At the time of the injury, Washington led, 34-33.
But when play resumed, the Huskies opened with a 15-4 run. That was more than the stunned Aggies could overcome, although they trimmed Washington’s lead to six in the final two minutes.
“We knew either they were going to come out and fight as hard as they can or have heavy hearts,” UW captain Quincy Pondexter said. “After that, they didn’t play to their capabilities because their mind was somewhere else. It was hard to see something like that happen and I pray to God it never happens to someone on our team like that. I pray to God for that team and I hope they bounce back.”
Until the injury, the game had been an athletic defensive struggle.
In the first half, baskets were hard to come by. The Aggies hit 10 of 29 shots (.345), while UW sank nine of 32 (.281).
Pondexter had exactly half of UW’s 32 first-half points, but then it was a long way down to No. 2 scorer Gant, who had five. Isaiah Thomas was shut out over the first 20 minutes, missing all six of his shots.
Things changed dramatically after the injury.
Pondexter led all scorers with 25 points. Venoy Overton added 12, and Thomas came on to add nine points.
Guard B.J. Holmes led Texas A&M (8-3) with 17 points, and guard Donald Sloan had 16. Roland had four points, one rebound and one assist.
The game ended UW’s eight-game losing streak against ranked non-conference opponents.
And it gave the Pac-10 a third victory against nine losses in this season’s Big 12/Pac-10 Hardwood Series.
“We needed this win,” Gant said. “They were a top 25 team. The last time we played a ranked team we didn’t do as well (a 74-66 loss to Georgetown). We really needed one to get us going. Even though we didn’t shoot well, we held them to (30.3 percent) shooting. We needed this win bad.”
The Huskies (8-2) will return to practice today, then take Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off. They return to action at noon Sunday when San Francisco visits. That will be UW’s final game before starting conference play against Oregon State on Dec. 31.
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