Notebook | Pondexter finds his game but doesn't hear name

BATON ROUGE, La. — The public-address announcer never really got Quincy Pondexter's name right Saturday, calling him "Poindexter" throughout.

But then, this Quincy Pondexter hardly looked like the same guy Washington fans have seen much of this season. Instead of the passive player who seemed to be waiting for things to happen, Pondexter attacked from the start in scoring 17 points as the Huskies rallied from a 16-point deficit to beat Louisiana State 73-65.

"He was assertive and he went right at them," coach Lorenzo Romar said of Pondexter, who hit 8 of 15 shots.

Pondexter, who scored just two points in 15 minutes Dec. 22 against Cal State Northridge, said he came back from a Christmas visit with his family in Fresno, Calif., with a renewed attitude.

"I think I've got all the bad games out of my system," he said. "I got a chance to go home for Christmas and that really opened my eyes, so I feel I'm done with that little childish phase I was going through."

Pondexter said family members told him he had to be more aggressive and that he realized "I was deferring a lot, waiting for the ball to come to me.

"I need to score. That's the big thing right now. We have a lot of pieces to the puzzle on this team, but for us to win, I need to score, so I'm putting the burden on myself as a person and a player to come out and be aggressive and lead our team to victories."

Pondexter admitted the season to date "has been frustrating at times, hearing people talk about what's going on. Really, I was trying to be the best team player I can possibly be and that wasn't really me. So now I feel I need to come out and be really assertive and be the player that I am. It's hard for me to stress that enough because I wasn't really playing like myself."

Brushing up on history

Guard Ryan Appleby said his back still isn't 100 percent after suffering spasms last week. But he gutted out 30 minutes against LSU and loved every minute of it, taking frequent peaks at the retired jersey looming overhead of Pete Maravich, his longtime idol.

Appleby said it was an honor to play here and that "to be able to come in here and get a win is pretty special."

Notes

• UW guard Tim Morris tied a season high with 31 minutes despite playing with a mask to protect a broken nose suffered in practice Thursday when he took an elbow from Joe Wolfinger. Morris said he expects to wear the mask for a month or two and said the biggest adjustment was losing some peripheral vision.

• LSU coach John Brady on the difference in the two halves — the Tigers led 41-27 at halftime: "I thought they [the Huskies] physically picked up their play a little bit and they started throwing the ball inside and they either wore us down or we didn't respond. We just got away from some of the things we did in the first half and I thought the energy level we created in the first half we weren't able to establish in the second half."

WASHINGTON 73
min		fgm-a	ftm-a	or-t	a	pf	pts
Wallace	13	1-1	1-2	0-2	0	1	3
Brockman	34	6-11	3-7	3-12	2	3	15
Smith	20	0-3	0-0	2-3	1	0	0
Morris	31	7-12	0-0	3-5	3	3	15
Appleby	30	4-8	2-2	0-1	1	0	12
Overton	10	0-1	0-0	0-0	1	1	0
Dentmon	23	1-4	7-8	0-3	4	1	9
Bryan-Amning	4	0-3	0-0	1-2	0	1	0
Pondexter	26	8-15	1-1	4-5	1	2	17
Wolfinger	9	1-3	0-0	0-2	0	2	2
	200	28-61	14-20	14-38	13	14	73

Percentages: FG .459, FT .700. Three-point goals: 3-12, (Smith 0-1, Morris 1-2, Appleby 2-5, Dentmon 0-1, Pondexter 0-1, Wolfinger 0-2). Team rebounds: 3. Blocked shots: 2, (Wallace, Pondexter). Turnovers: 14, (Brockman 3, Smith, Morris 2, Overton, Dentmon, Pondexter 3, Wolfinger 2). Steals: 11, (Wallace, Brockman 2, Smith 2, Morris 3, Overton, Dentmon, Wolfinger). Technical fouls: None.

LSU 65
min		fgm-a	ftm-a	or-t	a	pf	pts
Randolph	36	2-11	6-6	2-9	0	3	10
Johnson	36	9-12	0-0	3-9	0	3	19
Thornton	33	7-15	4-4	2-8	2	3	18
Martin	31	6-13	0-0	0-1	2	3	14
Temple	32	0-3	0-0	0-3	5	2	0
Spencer	19	0-2	0-0	0-1	0	2	0
Green	9	2-2	0-0	2-2	0	2	4
Farrer	4	0-0	0-2	0-0	0	0	0
	200	26-58	10-12	9-33	9	18	65

Percentages: FG .448, FT .833. Three-point goals: 3-13, (Johnson 1-1, Thornton 0-4, Martin 2-6, Temple 0-1, Spencer 0-1). Team rebounds: 0. Blocked shots: 4, (Johnson 2, Martin, Temple). Turnovers: 18, (Randolph 3, Johnson, Thornton 4, Martin 3, Temple 4, Spencer 2, Green). Steals: 7, (Randolph 3, Johnson, Thornton 2, Spencer). Technical fouls: None.

Washington	27	46	—	73
LSU	41	24	—	65

Att.: 8,947. Officials: Stuart, Valentine, Barnaky.