Notebook | Spencer Hawes watches victory, but says he has no regrets

BERKELEY, Calif. — An unexpected day off gave Spencer Hawes a chance to get his first in-person look at his old team.

The Seattle Prep grad, who spent last season with the Huskies before declaring for the NBA draft and being selected ninth by the Sacramento Kings, was scheduled for a practice Saturday afternoon before it was abruptly canceled.

So Hawes made the trek to Berkeley to see Washington's 87-84 win over California, speaking to the team briefly beforehand. He watched the game from a few rows behind the bench, then mingled with former teammates afterward.

The experience, however, didn't leave him with any second thoughts about his decision to leave early.

"Not a one," he said, despite getting less playing time with the Kings than he hoped — he's averaging 3.4 points in nine minutes a game. "That's their team now. It's exciting to see them looking good out there."

Hawes has kept in close contact with the Huskies. He worked out with the team when he was home a few weeks ago for the All-Star break, having dinner with Jon Brockman and Joe Wolfinger. Coaches and players also saw him when the Kings played in Seattle.

"He's learning and waiting for his opportunity," said UW coach Lorenzo Romar. "This is what he wanted to do. He's living out a dream."

Pondexter perks up

Easy to overlook in a breakout weekend for sophomore Joe Wolfinger were two good games by sophomore Quincy Pondexter, who scored 19 points at Stanford and had 12 points and team highs of seven rebounds and four assists in 31 minutes against Cal.

"He had a very good weekend," Romar said.

Pondexter said UW coaches have urged him to be more assertive offensively.

"They told me to stop being so passive and unselfish and try to score some buckets for us," he said. "The whole first part of the season I was trying to set up my teammates and let things come to me and not rush to be a star in one day and I really kind of took a back seat. Now I'm trying to be more aggressive so our team can do a lot better. It's starting to come now and for the rest of my time as a Husky it's going to be shown a lot."

NOTES

• California forward Ryan Anderson blistered UW with 33 points and 17 rebounds when the Bears beat the Huskies 79-75 in Seattle last month. So the Huskies changed up their defensive scheme on him, playing the Bears more straight-up rather than trying to trap, which last time created some mismatches Anderson was able to exploit. It worked better as Anderson was held to four first-half points, 19 overall.

• The game tipped off at 3 p.m. and the Huskies hustled from Berkeley to catch a 7:30 p.m. flight out of San Francisco. Once there, they found they were on the same flight as the Cougars, who played at Stanford earlier in the day.

• UW committed just six turnovers, the fewest in at least two seasons. The previous season low this year was eight, and the lowest last season was nine. But it's not the lowest of the Romar era. That occurred in 2005 when UW had just three turnovers in a win over Arizona State, which is the school record.

• Brad Shaw, a junior at Snohomish High who scored 43 points in three games at the state 4A tournament, is the son of Husky assistant coach Jim Shaw. Jim Shaw was able to see all three of his son's games while assigned to scout the tournament for recruiting purposes.

WASHINGTON 87
min		fgm-a	ftm-a	or-t	a	pf	pts
Morris	13	2-4	0-0	1-1	3	4	4
Brockman	23	5-12	0-2	0-4	0	4	10
Wallace	16	2-2	0-0	1-3	0	4	4
Overton	19	1-3	2-4	0-4	3	2	4
Appleby	35	5-10	2-2	0-3	3	2	16
Smith	4	1-1	0-1	0-0	0	0	2
Dentmon	21	4-7	3-4	1-2	3	3	12
Bryan-Amanng	20	3-8	0-0	2-5	2	2	6
Pondexter	31	4-9	4-7	0-7	4	0	12
Wolfinger	18	6-6	1-1	0-0	1	3	17
	200	33-62	12-21	6-30	19	24	87

Percentages: FG .532, FT .571. Three-point goals: 9-14, .643 (Wolfinger 4-4, Appleby 4-7, Dentmon 1-3). Team rebounds: 1. Blocked shots: 1 (Dentmon). Turnovers: 6 (Brockman 2, Overton, Pondexter, Smith, Wallace). Steals: 5 (Overton 3, Brockman 2). Technical fouls: None.

CALIFORNIA 84
min		fgm-a	ftm-a	or-t	a	pf	pts
Boykin	14	1-3	1-1	2-3	2	3	3
Anderson	32	6-12	6-7	1-8	0	3	19
Hardin	29	6-10	6-6	5-13	2	4	18
Randle	33	5-10	0-1	0-1	4	4	12
Vierneisel	35	5-8	5-6	2-7	3	4	20
Knezevic	11	1-2	0-1	0-0	0	1	2
Armstrong	2	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0
Christopher	27	3-10	1-1	0-2	2	2	9
Wilkes	4	0-0	0-0	0-0	3	0	0
Kamp	13	0-3	1-2	0-2	0	2	1
	200	27-58	20-25	10-38	16	23	84

Percentages: FG .466, FT .800. Three-point goals: 10-22, .455 (Vierneisel 5-5, Randle 2-5, Christopher 2-6, Anderson 1-4, Boykin 0-1, Knezevic 0-1). Team rebounds: 2. Blocked shots: 2 (Boykin, Hardin). Turnovers: 12 (Randle 3, Hardin 2, Boykin 2, Armstrong, Anderson, Kamp, Vierneisel, Knezevic). Steals: 1 (Kamp). Technical fouls: None.

Washington	49	38	—	87
California	44	40	—	84

Attendance: 8,640. Officials: Verne Harris, Tony Padilla, Jim Giron.