Huskies run past Stanford, 85-73

LOS ANGELES — The Washington Huskies never stopped running here Thursday, even when it bordered on being out of control.

And much to their surprise, neither did the Stanford Cardinal, which seemed intent on proving to the Huskies they could keep up.

As the Huskies expected, Stanford couldn't, and when the legs of the Cardinal players turned to jelly, Washington feasted, pulling away for an 85-73 win in the quarterfinals of the Pac-10 men's basketball tournament at Staples Center.

"I was shocked," said Huskies guard Justin Dentmon. "They are more of a structured team, a set-oriented team, and when they tried to get out in transition it was like, 'Wow, this is exactly what we wanted them to do. They are going to run out of gas at the end of the game.' So we wanted to keep running."

They ran all the way to a semifinal matchup today against Arizona State at 6 p.m. and a rematch with a Sun Devils team that the Huskies beat in a memorable game two weeks ago in Seattle that went a long way toward giving UW the Pac-10 regular-season title.

"It just feels good to win the first game of the tournament," said Dentmon, noting UW hasn't advanced to the semifinals since 2005 — before any of the current players were on the roster.

At times early Thursday, the Huskies looked like a team not ready for prime time, which was fitting for a game that started at 2:30 p.m.

Washington hit just 6 of 24 field-goal attempts early and had 11 first-half turnovers. The Huskies finished with 21 turnovers, their most since having 23 in the first game of the year at Portland.

Isaiah Thomas was 0 for 6 in the first half and Quincy Pondexter 0 for 4, neither scoring, with UW leading 38-35 at halftime. That was thanks mostly to nine points from Jon Brockman and nine more off the bench from Elston Turner, all on three-pointers in the final 2:30.

But Stanford wasn't any better, hitting 13 of 34 shots in the first half, and the Huskies went into the locker room confident the game was about to turn. With Stanford having played Wednesday night, when it beat Oregon State to advance to the quarterfinals, UW figured it would have the edge the longer the game stayed at a breakneck pace.

"The first half they tried to really run and we tried to let them know they are trying to play our pace," said Huskies guard Venoy Overton. "We weren't knocking down our shots, so they stuck around. But that's what we tried to do ... force them to play our pace."

It began to pay off early in the second half, as Thomas scored nine points in 2 ½ minutes to key a run that put Washington up by 11. When Stanford mounted a rally that eventually cut it to 67-62 with just over eight minutes left, Pondexter took over, scoring eight points in about three minutes to keep UW afloat. Stanford then faded quickly as the lead grew to 17.

"We played a very fast, athletic team tonight, and the wear and tear of a game like that can take a toll on you," said Stanford coach Johnny Dawkins.

Washington hit 17 of 28 shots in the second half (60.7 percent) to 13 of 39 for the Cardinal. Stanford was also just 8 for 28 on three-pointers for the game and 26 for 73 overall.

"We saw during the game that the game was going up and down, and in the second half maybe that would be in our favor," said UW coach Lorenzo Romar. "Maybe it was."

Brockman finished with 20 points but in one of the game's oddities, ceded high-rebound honors to Thomas, who ran down several Stanford missed three-pointers to finish with a career-high nine.

Thomas had 14 points in the second half, while Pondexter had 11 in the second half. Anthony Goods led the Cardinal with 26 but was the only Stanford starter to make more than half of his shots.

For the Huskies, it was proof of what they said earlier in the week: They want a Pac-10 tournament title as much as they wanted to win the regular-season title.

"We don't want to be satisfied," Dentmon said. "We want to keep playing, and we just have to keep feeding that into these young guys' heads that it's not over yet."

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

STANFORD (18-13)
min		fgm-a	ftm-a	or-t	a	pf	pts
Johnson	34	1-6	1-3	1-4	5	0	3
Fields	36	7-18	1-2	4-15	3	2	16
Goods	32	8-17	9-9	1-2	2	2	26
Hill	32	2-14	0-0	2-8	1	2	4
Owens	12	0-2	0-0	0-1	0	4	0
Brown	18	4-8	0-0	0-1	1	3	11
Green	21	4-5	2-2	2-4	0	2	13
Dildy	2	0-1	0-0	0-0	1	0	0
Paul	11	0-2	0-0	1-1	1	3	0
Trotter	2	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0
	200	26-73	13-16	12-39	14	18	73

Percentages: FG .356, FT .813. Three-point goals: 8-28, .286 (Green 3-4, Brown 3-6, Fields 1-5, Goods 1-6, Paul 0-1, Hill 0-3, Johnson 0-3). Team rebounds: 3. Blocked shots: 2 (Fields, Hill). Turnovers: 18 (Fields 5, Goods 5, Hill 2, Brown 2, Johnson 2, Owens, Green). Steals: 10 (Owens 4, Johnson 2, Fields 2, Brown, Hill). Technical fouls: None.

WASHINGTON (25-7)
min		fgm-a	ftm-a	or-t	a	pf	pts
	Brockman		32	6-12	8-9	2-8	1	3	20

	Thomas		26	5-14	3-5	0-9	1	3	14

	Dentmon		24	3-9	3-3	1-6	2	3	10

	Pondexter		29	4-10	3-3	2-5	3	2	11

	Gant		17	1-4	0-0	1-1	1	3	2

B-Amaning	15	2-4	1-2	1-6	1	3	5
Wallace	2	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0
Holiday	14	2-3	0-0	2-3	1	0	4
Turner	11	3-4	0-0	0-0	0	1	9
Wolfinger	1	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0
Overton	27	3-4	2-3	1-6	0	2	8
Suggs	2	1-1	0-0	0-0	0	0	2
	200	30-65	20-25	11-48	10	20	85

Percentages: FG .462, FT .800. Three-point goals: 5-9, .556 (Turner 3-3, Thomas 1-2, Dentmon 1-3, Overton 0-1). Team rebounds: 4. Blocked shots: 3 (Bryan-Amaning 3). Turnovers: 21 (Bryan-Amaning 4, Pondexter 4, Gant 3, Overton 3, Thomas 2, Brockman 2, Wallace, Turner, Dentmon). Steals: 12 (Dentmon 3, Overton 2, Gant 2, Brockman 2, Bryan-Amaning 2, Holiday). Technical fouls: None.

Stanford	35	38	—	73
Washington	38	47	—	85

Attendance: 14,732. Officials: Michael Eggers, Bruce Hicks, Bill Kennedy.