UW Men's Hoops | Georgetown's second-half run buries Huskies

ANAHEIM, Calif. — At the start of the second half, there was trouble.

A basketball game that looked more like a tug of war against defensively stout 15th-ranked Georgetown began to spiral away from No. 17 Washington.

During four agonizing minutes, the Huskies couldn't buy a basket and the Hoyas couldn't miss.

By the time sophomore guard Isaiah Thomas ended UW's drought with a layup, Georgetown had taken a 13-point lead and was on its way to a dominating 74-66 victory in the Saturday morning game of the John Wooden Classic.

"Sometimes you see it coming, sometimes you don't," Huskies coach Lorenzo Romar said. "I didn't see it coming today. I thought today we did a pretty good job, with the exception of 12 turnovers in the first half.

"I thought we had fought. I thought we were ready to go, but we came out defensively and gave up a few easy baskets, and it just escalated from there and it began to get away from us."

This defeat wasn't like the Texas Tech game, Washington's only other loss.

In many ways, it was worse because the Huskies committed a season-high 25 turnovers and were never seriously in contention in the second half.

As the bespectacled Wooden, 99, watched from a suite high above the Honda Center court, Georgetown scored 12 unanswered points after halftime to take a 42-29 lead. The run extended to 21-2, giving Georgetown a 51-31 lead with 13:55 left.

"We came out lackadaisical," said a teary-eyed Quincy Pondexter. "We weren't hustling as much as we were in the first half. We were just moving in slow motion."

In the first game between the Big East and Pac-10 teams, Georgetown (8-0) gave Washington (6-2) one of the fundamental lessons in basketball: Size matters.

Led by 6-foot-11 sophomore center Greg Monroe and a dominating front line, the Hoyas overwhelmed the Huskies' smaller four-guard lineup and made it nearly impossible for Washington to score inside.

Monroe came into the game with preseason All-American accolades, but it was 6-9 junior forward Julian Vaughn, who scored a team-high 18 points and finished with seven rebounds, who led a balanced Georgetown attack.

All five Hoyas starters scored in double figures. Monroe had 15 points and seven rebounds, guard Chris Wright added 13 points, and guards Jason Clark and Austin Freeman each scored 11.

"We had a very unselfish group in there," Georgetown coach John Thompson III said. "This will be the strength of our team. We just realized Julian had some advantages. The team realized it and they went to him, and he did what he was supposed to do."

While the Hoyas got points from every part of their rotation, the Huskies countered with a two-man attack.

Pondexter and Thomas took turns carrying Washington offensively and at times they thrilled the crowd with an array of dunks and acrobatic layups.

"They've been carrying the scoring load," Romar said. "Whether we've played on the road, at home, or here, it's pretty much been the same."

Pondexter had a game-high 23 points on 10-for-15 shooting and six rebounds. He also had five steals and five turnovers.

Thomas sank 9 of 18 shots for 21 points. He had five turnovers and five rebounds.

The other three starters combined for seven points, UW received 15 points from the bench, and no one besides Thomas and Pondexter scored more than five points.

The Huskies came into the game sixth in the nation in scoring, at 86.3 points per game, but they struggled for long stretches to score against Georgetown's defense that was second in the country in points allowed.

Washington trailed 30-29 at halftime, then failed to score on seven straight possessions after the break.

"We let up for a little bit, and that's all it takes to lose these games," Pondexter said.

UW made a frantic comeback attempt in the final minutes and cut Georgetown's lead to 69-63 with 27 seconds left. The Hoyas made five free throws to seal it.

Washington's next game is at home Saturday against Portland (6-3).

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Box score

GEORGETOWN (8-0)
min		fgm-a	ftm-a	or-t	a	pf	pts
Vaughn	24	7-9	4-4	3-7	1	3	18
Monroe	37	6-14	3-7	2-7	3	3	15
Wright	38	4-7	5-7	0-5	3	2	13
Freeman	35	3-12	4-4	3-6	4	0	11
Clark	38	5-11	2-2	1-4	3	3	13
Thompson	25	1-5	2-4	0-3	2	3	4
Sanford	1	0-0	0-0	0-0	1	0	0
Sims	2	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0
	200	26-58	20-28	10-34	17	14	74

Percentages: FG .448, FT .714. Three-point goals: 2-12, .167 (Clark 1-5, Freeman 1-5, Monroe 0-1, Wright 0-1). Team rebounds: 2. Blocked shots: 3 (Vaughn 2, Monroe). Turnovers: 17 (Wright 4, Freeman 3, Clark 3, Monroe 2, Thompson, Sims, Vaughn). Steals: 11 (Freeman 3, Clark 3, Monroe 3, Thompson 2). Technical fouls: None.

WASHINGTON (6-2)
min		fgm-a	ftm-a	or-t	a	pf	pts
B-Amaning	28	2-6	1-2	1-7	0	0	5
Pondexter	34	10-15	3-3	2-6	2	3	23
Overton	24	1-4	0-0	0-2	1	4	2
Thomas	31	9-18	0-2	0-5	2	3	21
Turner	15	0-4	0-0	0-2	0	2	0
Gaddy	20	1-4	0-0	3-4	3	3	2
Trent	6	0-0	0-0	1-3	0	0	0
Suggs	19	1-4	2-2	0-0	2	3	5
Holiday	11	2-4	0-0	2-4	0	0	4
Breshers	10	2-2	0-0	0-0	0	1	4
Gant	2	0-1	0-0	0-0	0	1	0
	200	28-62	6-9	11-38	10	20	66

Percentages: FG .452, FT .667. Three-point goals: 4-18, .222 (Thomas 3-10, Suggs 1-3, Gaddy 0-1, Pondexter 0-1, Turner 0-3). Team rebounds: 5. Blocked shots: 4 (Bryan-Amaning 2, Breshers, Suggs). Turnovers: 25 (Pondexter 5, Thomas 5, Overton 3, Gaddy 3, Holiday 2, Breshers 2, Bryan-Amaning 2, Trent, Suggs, Turner). Steals: 9 (Pondexter 5, Overton 2, Gaddy, Bryan-Amaning). Technical fouls: Bench.

Georgetown	30	44	—	74
Washington	29	37	—	66

Attendance: N/A. Officials: Tony Greene, Anthony Jordan, Ron Grover.