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Notebook | Romar puts Dentmon in lineup, with no luck
Seattle Times staff reporter

Mbah a Moute.
Thursday's game at a glance
Player of the game: UCLA junior forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute is sometimes the forgotten man. But scouts insist he has NBA potential and he showed a well-rounded game against the Huskies, scoring 17 points. He also helped apply the clamps on UW guard Ryan Appleby, who was scoreless.
Turning point: The score was tied at 10 with just more than 12 minutes to go in the first half before the Bruins went on a 31-13 run to take a 41-23 lead at the break.
Next: at USC, 3:30 p.m. Saturday.
LOS ANGELES — Washington men's basketball coach Lorenzo Romar said Tuesday that he expected to go with the same lineup for Thursday night's game at UCLA, but warned that with two practices remaining before tipoff, things could change.
What did change was Romar deciding the Huskies needed an extra ballhandler on the floor, so the Huskies made a move, putting Justin Dentmon back in the lineup in place of Joel Smith.
The other starters remained the same — Jon Brockman and Artem Wallace up front and Ryan Appleby and Tim Morris in the backcourt.
"The thing we were concerned about coming in here was being able to take care of the ball," Romar said. "We don't have a lot of ballhandlers in that starting lineup and thought we needed one more."
Romar thought the move worked early as the teams were locked in a 10-10 tie after eight minutes.
But UCLA took advantage of a few careless Huskies turnovers to go on a 31-13 run the rest of the half to take a 41-23 lead.
"We just lost a little focus in the first half, and that's when they got away," said Dentmon, who played just 16 minutes as freshman Venoy Overton handled point-guard duties for much of the second half and played 22 minutes. "We've got to stop turning the ball over. When we stop turning it over, we are going to be a good team."
Neuheisel
in the house
Former UW football coach Rick Neuheisel, who recently was named to the same position at UCLA, attended his first game since taking over.
"It's a little bit surreal, isn't it?" he said of seeing the Huskies across the way.
He's expected to be introduced to the crowd during Saturday's game against Washington State, but he was met with a steady stream of well-wishers while walking into Pauley Pavilion.
"It's exciting, but now we have to deliver," Neuheisel said.
Neuheisel described his first 12 days on the job — he was hired Dec. 29 — as "a whirlwind. There's so many things you have to do — interview coaches, talk to recruits, get a new driver's license. It's endless. But it's exciting."
Not the best
UCLA team?
Though Romar said he thinks UCLA is the best team in the country, Dentmon said he wasn't sure this was the best UCLA team he has played against in his three years at UW.
"They're good, but they are not as good as they've been in the past," he said. "They let us back in the game. They could have put us away a long time ago."
Notes
• Jon Brockman has 1,005 career points, becoming the 32nd player in school history to top 1,000.
• Washington again lost the battle at the free-throw line as UCLA was 19 of 21 while the Huskies were 7 of 14.
| WASHINGTON | |||||||
| min | fgm-a | ftm-a | or-t | a | pf | pts | |
| Brockman | 35 | 7-14 | 2-4 | 5-8 | 2 | 2 | 16 |
| Wallace | 17 | 4-5 | 1-4 | 0-1 | 0 | 2 | 9 |
| Morris | 26 | 2-6 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
| Dentmon | 16 | 2-4 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
| Appleby | 18 | 0-2 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Smith | 17 | 2-3 | 0-0 | 3-6 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
| Overton | 22 | 0-6 | 1-2 | 1-2 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| B.-Amaning | 18 | 2-3 | 0-0 | 0-2 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Holiday | 4 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Pondexter | 25 | 3-10 | 3-4 | 0-0 | 1 | 3 | 10 |
| Wolfinger | 2 | 1-2 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 200 | 23-55 | 7-14 | 9-26 | 9 | 17 | 55 | |
| UCLA | |||||||
| min | fgm-a | ftm-a | or-t | a | pf | pts | |
| Aboya | 9 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-2 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| Mbah a Moute | 36 | 6-11 | 5-5 | 2-3 | 0 | 0 | 17 |
| Love | 32 | 3-6 | 4-4 | 1-7 | 4 | 2 | 11 |
| Collison | 18 | 2-6 | 4-4 | 0-2 | 2 | 0 | 8 |
| Shipp | 30 | 4-9 | 0-0 | 0-5 | 1 | 4 | 9 |
| Westbrook | 35 | 6-7 | 6-8 | 0-3 | 4 | 0 | 18 |
| Keefe | 17 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 1-2 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Mata-Real | 18 | 3-4 | 0-0 | 1-3 | 1 | 2 | 6 |
| Stanback | 4 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Dragovic | 1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 200 | 24-46 | 19-21 | 6-32 | 13 | 14 | 69 | |
| Washington | 23 | 32 | — | 55 |
| UCLA | 41 | 28 | — | 69 |
Attendance: 11,421. Officials: Dick Cartmell, Michael Reed, Mike Littlewood.
Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company
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