Sweet dreams: Huskies show toughness late in second half

SAN DIEGO — For the second year in a row, the Washington Huskies are undoubtedly Sweet.

But they aren't soft, a label they began carrying at midseason when they lost three consecutive games, and one they heard again when they dropped their Pac-10 tournament opener to Oregon.

That was proven Saturday when they beat Illinois 67-64 in the NCAA men's basketball tournament at Cox Arena in the type of grind-it-out game Pac-10 teams aren't supposed to win against clubs from the big, bad Big Ten.

"You cannot manufacture toughness all of a sudden," said UW coach Lorenzo Romar, whose team had as many rebounds (35) as the taller and supposedly meaner Illini and seemed to get every key loose ball. "If that wasn't in us, we could not have won this game."

It is the first time in school history the Huskies have advanced to the Sweet 16 in consecutive years. UW will now play either Connecticut or Kentucky — those two play today — on Friday in Washington, D.C., for a chance to make the Elite Eight.

"It's a special feeling," said UW guard Brandon Roy, who again led the Huskies (26-6) with 21 points. "A lot of people wouldn't have guessed we would make it this far."

Certainly, optimism was dwindling when the Huskies trailed 53-42 with 12:43 left. That was the culmination of a 25-point swing in the game that began when the Huskies led 28-14 with just under four minutes left in the first half.

"Even I was concerned," Roy said. "I was like, 'Man, I'm tired. These guys are not giving me anything easy.' They were just slowly killing us."

But during a timeout with just under 12 minutes left, Romar told his players that they could win the game if they could just stop Illinois big man James Augustine, who had 19 points at the time. And the man who had to do it, Romar said, was UW senior forward Mike Jensen.

"Coach looked at Mike and Mike looked at him and came to the conclusion that this could be it for him, so to go out there like there is no tomorrow," said UW guard Bobby Jones.

Augustine didn't take another shot as the Huskies turned the slow kill back on the Illini (26-7).

"He pretty much just told me, 'We need you,' " Jensen said. "And from that point on, I didn't come out and my only focus was to not let him touch the ball. That's what I was able to do."

The turning point, many UW players felt, was a four-point play by precocious UW freshman guard Justin Dentmon with 4:12 left. He hit a three-pointer, was fouled and made the free throw to pull UW within 60-58.

"That really made us feel like we had a chance to win the game," Roy said.

Illinois suddenly seemed rattled, and the Huskies forced a miss on the other end, with Roy then hitting a twisting lay-in in traffic to tie the score at 60 with 3:27 left.

Jones was fouled after grabbing an offensive rebound with the score tied at 62. He made both free throws with 59 seconds left.

Jamaal Williams stole a pass on the other end with 27 seconds left, leading to two Dentmon free throws that put UW ahead 66-62. Still, two free throws by Dee Brown cut UW's lead to two, and Jones hit just one of two with 13 seconds left.

Illinois called a timeout with 6.4 seconds left, and Brown ended up with the ball on the in-bounds play. Thanks to a screen, it was Williams who ended up guarding Brown as he dribbled for a few seconds outside the three-point line. With about a second left, Brown, a senior guard named recently as a second-team All-American, let fire from at least 25 feet.

"When I first saw it I said, 'That's on line,' " Williams said. "Then it hit the back of the rim and it wasn't."

And the celebration began, with Roy raising his arms in triumph to the UW cheering section, then hugging Romar, the player and coach at the heart of the Huskies' sudden rise to basketball prominence.

UW seemed in position to avoid such dramatics when it jumped ahead 28-14, allowing Illinois to hit just four of its first 26 shots. But the Illini then outscored UW 19-7 to end the first half.

"We got kind of frustrated," Roy said. "A couple of charge calls didn't go our way."

They were two of the few, though, as UW was called for 17 fouls to 28 for Illinois, which Illini coach Bruce Weber made note of afterward. "You saw it, you write it," Weber said of the officiating. "I don't have to get in trouble. You know what happened."

Augustine led Illinois on a big run to start the second half that seemed to have UW in deep trouble.

But then the Huskies fought back.

"I think we punched back so hard that I don't know if they were ready for that," Jensen said.

It was a blow that will carry the Huskies all the way back to the Sweet 16.

Bob Condotta: 206-515-5699 or bcondotta@seattletimes.com