In terms of overall aesthetics, the Washington Huskies’ 69-41 win over the USC Trojans ranks somewhere near roadside graffiti and finger painting.
But when you are in first place and trying to make the NCAA tournament, wins are what matter. Style points? Those are an added bonus.
Despite a handful of missed shots, and 17 turnovers, the Huskies were able to do what was needed against the undermanned Trojans and improve to 9-2 in the Pacific-12 Conference.
Washington remains alone atop the conference standings, a game ahead of California and Colorado, which both improved to 8-3 with wins Saturday.
Washington coach Lorenzo Romar warned that USC would try to make the game ugly. With only six scholarship players available, the Trojans had no reasonable chance to compete otherwise.
“They slowed it down a lot and tried to run a lot of clock,” said senior Darnell Gant. “We’re an uptempo team. When you play teams like that, they kind of lull you to sleep. And you get caught standing and not moving the ball around.”
The Huskies turnovers and poor shooting – 9-for-30 from the field and 0-for-8 from 3-point range in the first half – helped make it ugly. Those, along with three prolonged stoppages by the referees to review calls, didn’t help a game that struggled to find any rhythm or pace.
“We turned the ball over the same way in the UCLA game too, so that’s something we need to address and address quickly,” Romar said. “When you look how many open looks we had in the first half and couldn’t knock them down, I think that affects you a little more.”
Yet the Huskies were never really threatened. They took an 8-7 lead on a jumper from Shawn Kemp Jr. with 14 minutes, 46 seconds left in the first half and never trailed again.
Even though not much was falling, Washington still led 29-19 at the break.
It was just a matter of time till they pulled away. A 9-0 run highlighted by a pair of Aziz N’Diaye baskets inside and a Wroten put-back pushed the lead to 38-23 with 15:58 left in the game.
From there, the lead steadily grew. A C.J. Wilcox jumper with 8 minutes to play sparked a 25-8 run to close out the game.
Washington starting making shots in the second half, but it was defense that put the game out of reach.
“We just stayed together and coach said we needed to play defense because the run wasn’t going to come by offense,” Wroten said.
The 41 points USC scored is the fewest that the Huskies have allowed in a conference game since a 50-40 win over Oregon State on Feb. 10, 1996. USC shot an icy 17-for-59 from the field.
“I thought we played pretty good defense,” Romar said. “I thitnk we closed out and contested a lot of their shots.”
The Trojans were 1-for-16 from 3-point range.
The Huskies were led by Wroten, who fought through a thigh bruise to score 13 points, pull down six rebounds and dish out eight assists with just one turnover.
“I’m beat up man,” he said. “We got the win. I just got to get healthy.”
It was the assists that pleased Romar the most.
“I would say that’s progress,” Romar said. “I thought Tony played like a veteran out there tonight.”
Terrence Ross finished with 10 points and 14 rebounds – a career high. It was his fifth double-double of the season.
The Huskies will play five of their next seven games on the road, starting with a trip to the Oregon schools next week.
“It’s always tough when we go down there,” Gant said. “We want to have our heads on straight and focus this week in practice.”
Ryan Divish: 253-597-8483 ryan.divish@thenewstribune.com blog.thenewstribune.com/uwsports
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