UW Basketball | Huskies control Pac-10 fate after 60-51 win over USC

LOS ANGELES — If they eventually raise a banner at Edmundson Pavilion commemorating a Pac-10 championship for this season, the Washington Huskies will look back at this day as the turning point.

The day when the road to the conference regular-season title suddenly cleared wide open, like an HOV lane after rush hour.

"It is ours for the taking if we can concentrate here the next two weeks," said Washington coach Lorenzo Romar after Washington's 60-51 Pac-10 men's basketball victory over USC here at the Galen Center on Saturday.

Washington's win, in one of its more tenacious efforts in years, combined with surprising upset losses by UCLA and California to put the Huskies back in the driver's seat.

Washington is 11-4 in Pac-10, with Arizona State 9-4 and UCLA and Cal 9-5. Arizona State hosts Arizona tonight.

"What more can we ask for?" said guard Justin Dentmon of the losses by the Bears and the Bruins. "And with nothing but home games it's just all in our favor right now."

For about 10 minutes, however, it looked like the Huskies might let opportunity pass without a second glance as USC jumped to a 22-11 lead.

But then the Huskies began pressuring USC's guards, Venoy Overton coming off the bench to lead the defensive effort, and UW got right back in it. The Huskies went on an 18-2 run to take a 31-28 lead at halftime.

"He was the catalyst for getting us going," Romar said of Overton.

In the second half, it was Quincy Pondexter's turn, though not before another scare. USC used an 11-0 run early in the half to regain the lead. The Trojans still led 48-44 with 7:28 to play.

But then Pondexter took over, scoring eight straight in one stretch as the Huskies outscored USC 16-3 the rest of the way.

"From the opening tip he was just a man out there today," said Romar of Pondexter, who made 10 of 13 shots in scoring a game-high 22 points.

Romar had been a little worried earlier in the day when he noticed how quiet Pondexter was, asking Dentmon to talk to him.

"I just went into a mode where I just felt I needed to be 100 percent focused on winning this game," he said.

Romar said it was Pondexter's day in part because USC designed its defense to take out guards Dentmon and Isaiah Thomas, who combined to score just 12 points on 4-of-17 shooting.

Washington won despite a season-low four assists, 16 turnovers, shooting just 22 of 58 overall (37.9 percent) and 1 of 10 from the three-point line.

"It wasn't pretty," said forward Jon Brockman, who was also a focal point of USC's defense and scored just six. "But at the end of the game, we made the plays."

The Huskies (20-7) simply found a way to win.

"To be down in a hostile environment against a tough, gritty, talented team and come back and win as a team — that's as good as it gets in team sports," Romar said.

The Huskies return home, where they are 14-1 this season, for their final three Pac-10 games against Arizona State, Arizona and Washington State. Win out, and UW will take its first outright regular-season conference title since 1953 and first of any kind since 1985.

"It's incredibly motivating to have the Pac-10 championship three games away," Pondexter said. "It's incredible from where we started the season off, losing to Portland and how we played the last two seasons. We've come such a ways."

WASHINGTON (20-7, 11-4 PAC-10)
min		fgm-a	ftm-a	or-t	a	pf	pts
Pondexter	33	10-13	2-2	3-5	0	3	22
Brockman	32	2-8	2-2	5-14	0	3	6
Gant	22	2-4	0-0	1-5	0	2	4
Thomas	27	2-7	0-0	0-2	2	1	4
Dentmon	32	2-10	4-4	4-5	0	2	8
Overton	21	2-6	2-2	0-1	2	3	7
B-Amaning	19	1-4	5-9	2-3	0	1	7
Holiday	9	0-4	0-0	1-1	0	1	0
Turner	5	1-2	0-0	0-1	0	0	2
	200	22-58	15-19	18-40	4	16	60

Percentages: FG .379, FT .789. Three-point goals: 1-10, .100 (Overton 1-3, Holiday 0-1, Turner 0-1, Thomas 0-1, Dentmon 0-4). Team rebounds: 3. Blocked shots: 1 (Bryan-Amaning). Turnovers: 16 (Overton 3, Dentmon 3, Pondexter 3, Thomas 3, Brockman 2, Holiday, Bryan-Amaning). Steals: 9 (Dentmon 3, Overton 3, Pondexter 2, Brockman).

USC (16-10, 7-7)
min		fgm-a	ftm-a	or-t	a	pf	pts
Washington	25	4-9	1-2	4-6	1	2	9
DeRozan	37	3-10	2-2	2-6	0	2	8
Gibson	34	4-6	2-2	2-2	5	3	10
Hackett	39	3-5	4-6	1-3	5	5	11
Lewis	39	4-15	1-2	0-3	0	5	11
Vucevic	16	1-2	0-0	1-6	0	2	2
Simmons	4	0-1	0-0	0-2	0	0	0
Wilkinson	5	0-2	0-1	0-0	0	0	0
Smith	1	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0
	200	19-50	10-15	11-30	11	19	51

Percentages: FG .380, FT .667. Three-point goals: 3-12, .250 (Lewis 2-7, Hackett 1-2, Wilkinson 0-1, DeRozan 0-2). Team rebounds: 2. Blocked shots: 4 (Gibson 4). Turnovers: 16 (Lewis 6, Washington 4, Gibson 3, Hackett 2, Vucevic). Steals: 8 (Washington 4, Lewis 2, Hackett 2).

Washington	31	29	—	60
USC	28	23	—	51

Attendance: 7,325. Officials: Michael Eggers, Randy Burkhart, Tom Spitznagel.