EUGENE, Ore. – Maybe it was a sign of things to come. A road closure from a nasty car wreck on the interstate caused the Huskies to be almost 45 minutes late to pregame warm-ups at Matthew Knight Arena on Thursday for their Pacific-12 Conference matchup with Oregon.
Ten minutes into their showdown with the Ducks, it seemed as though the Huskies were still in warm-up mode.
Oregon guard Garrett Sim scored the first eight points of the game to stun the Huskies and set the tone early.
Washington slogged its way through one of its worst first-half performances of the season, and played only minimally better in the second half of a frustrating 82-57 defeat at the hands of the Ducks.
“They just beat us in every way,” coach Lorenzo Romar said. “I didn’t see us falling flat on our face and doing such a poor job executing.”
The loss, coupled with California’s 75-49 win over USC, dropped UW into a tie with the Bears at 9-3 atop the Pac-12 standings.
The Huskies (16-8 overall) didn’t feel like a first-place team on Thursday night. They couldn’t make open shots, they missed layups and defensively they were a mess.
“We just didn’t come to play,” said freshmen guard Tony Wroten. “We got embarrassed.”
Washington never led for a single moment in the game.
Sim buried an open jumpshot to start the game and rattled in a 3-pointer on Oregon’s next possession. Feeling confident, he buried a 22-foot 3-pointer in transition when none of the Huskies picked him up. It forced Romar to call a timeout to calm the tide.
“He was the catalyst in the first half to get them going at the outset,” Romar said.
And the Ducks (17-7, 8-4) just kept going. They pushed the lead 10, then 11 and 12. A 13-0 run brought it to 43-19 with 2 minutes, 40 seconds remaining in the first half.
Carlos Emory had an acrobatic tip-in off a missed shot at the buzzer to give the Ducks a 49-26 halftime lead. It was that kind of half for the Huskies.
It was the type of first half the Huskies played in losses at St. Louis, at home against South Dakota State and at Colorado.
“I thought we were past those,” said senior Darnell Gant. “I thought everybody would be motivated with what’s at stake, but in the beginning of the game we just didn’t start out right.”
The only team to score more points on the Huskies in the first half of a game this season was South Dakota State, which put up 51. But that was 13 games ago and this is conference play with a postseason berth on the line.
The lack of energy clearly frustrated Romar.
“I would say that they had more energy than we did the entire game,” Romar said. “It’s surprising.”
Oregon shot a blistering 64.3 percent from the field in the first half on 18-for-28 shooting, including 6-for-8 from 3-point range.
Conversely, Washington was ice cold, shooting just 30.3 percent (10-for-33) and 5-for-13 from the free-throw line.
Even with the poor start, Romar hoped his team might put together a big run early in the second half. But big runs require defensive stops, and the Huskies never stopped Oregon.
Five mintutes into the second half, the lead was 23 points. The Huskies were done.
“We couldn’t get stops,” Gant said. “We’d take away the 3 and then they would get layups. And then I felt like we got lazy on defense. We can’t have that.”
For the game, Oregon shot 56.4 percent from the field on 31-for-55 shooting. The Ducks ran their sets, got open looks and converted with frightening efficiency. Washington’s inability to defend helped.
“As good as they are, and as good they execute, they do anything differently offensively from the first game,” Romar said of the Huskies’ 76-60 win over the Ducks on New Year’s Eve.
Washington couldn’t find a way to match the defensive effort they gave in the first matchup.
“Every negative category you want to name, you can check the box on it,” Romar said of his team’s effort. “Lack of execution, lack of executing the (game plan), lack of energy, just very poor.”
Offensively, the Huskies were only marginally better than their defensive effort. They shot 36.4 percent (24-for-66) from the field and were 7-for-18 from free throw line and 2-for-16 from 3-point range.
“Three weeks from now if we bounce back, we’ll look at this as a bad exam and throw it out,” Romar said. “I hope it just doesn’t cost us anything in terms of the postseason.”
Ryan Divish: 253-597-8483 ryan.divish@thenewstribune.com blog.thenewstribune.com/uwsports
SUNDAY
Washington at Oregon State, 2:30 p.m., Root Sports, 950-AM, 102.9-FM
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