UW men nip at Stanford's heels

PALO ALTO, Calif. -- The last few years here, Washington needed time to run a little faster, blowing late leads that turned into heartbreaking losses.

Thursday night, the Huskies -- climbing uphill all game -- were left wishing the clock would have ticked just a little bit slower.

"I would have liked another 20 seconds," said Huskies forward Jon Brockman. "I would have loved that."

Instead, time ran out before the Huskies could come all the way back, and they left Maples Pavilion with an all-too-familiar feeling, losing 82-79 to the Stanford Cardinal.

It was Washington's 15th consecutive defeat at Maples, their longest current streak of futility in any Pac-10 arena.

"The close ones like that hurt really bad," Brockman said. "Every single time I've been here it's been a close one."

This one was surprisingly so, however, as the Huskies were 11-point underdogs against the No. 8 Cardinal, and the game had all the makings of a rout early on.

Stanford led 13-3 after five minutes and made the lead 13 midway through the first half.

But the Huskies kept plugging away, and they cut the lead to one on two occasions in the second half, and to two with 1.9 seconds left.

"We kept scrapping," said UW forward Quincy Pondexter, who came off the bench to score 19 points, his most in a Pac-10 game this season.

But the Huskies never got the lead, left lamenting another bad night at the free-throw line -- the Huskies were 7 for 16 to Stanford's 21 for 30 -- and a few loose balls they didn't get in the first half.

"Our inability to hit free throws cost us in this game," said UW coach Lorenzo Romar.

Otherwise, Romar was satisfied with an effort that might have been good enough to win a lot of other games on Washington's schedule.

"We're playing our best basketball right now," he said. "We did a good job of going to the basket strong and making plays. It was a much better effort than at our place."

In that game, Stanford dominated from the start to take a 65-51 win with 7-foot center Brook Lopez scoring 31 points.

The Huskies decided to alter their strategy on Lopez a bit this time, double-teaming him more. Lopez still led all scorers with 21, but Romar said he thought Lopez had to work a lot harder for his points this time.

"We were hoping he wouldn't be the guy that would beat us," Romar said.

The only problem with the strategy early was that other Cardinal players were too often left open for three-pointers, hitting 6 of 9 in the first 13 minutes of the game, three by Anthony Goods, who finished with 16 points.

But Stanford hit just one more the rest of the way as the Huskies battled back, getting inspired efforts from Pondexter, who was playing in front family and friends who made the drive from his home in Fresno, and little-used sophomore center Joe Wolfinger. Wolfinger tied a career high with 12 points in 18 minutes and also helped defend Lopez.

Lopez had 13 points at halftime as Stanford led 41-34.

But he hit just one field goal in the second half as the Huskies rallied. A layin by Brockman, who led UW with 20 points and 14 rebounds, cut Stanford's lead to 60-59 with 7:08 left. Stanford scored the next six points as the Huskies lost two turnovers and missed three free throws.

"Many times we were right there, and we didn't capitalize," Romar said. "We've got to be able to do that."

Stanford led by seven with 38 seconds left. The Cardinal then missed 5 of 8 free throws, and a long three-pointer by Appleby cut the lead to 81-79 with 1.9 seconds left. But the Cardinal got the ball inbounds safely to clinch the game.

The Huskies are now 15-14 overall, 6-10 in Pac-10 play, and will need to win at California on Saturday or Washington State on March 8 to avoid a losing record heading into the Pac-10 tournament. Although the season tally seems dire, Thursday's effort left the players feeling there is still reason for hope.

"If we could have played this well in a couple of other games where we didn't come to play, our record would be a lot different," Brockman said. "So as much as it hurts losing, at the same time we have to say, 'All right, that's how we want to play.' "

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