UW men's basketball team comes up short against Kentucky

LAHAINA, Hawaii — Despite the denials from everyone involved, this game was all about Terrence Jones.

The supremely talented freshman created a mini-maelstrom in April when he verbally committed to Washington at a news conference before reversing his decision and signing scholarship papers with Kentucky.

Instead of starring for the 13th-ranked Huskies in the Maui Invitational semifinals, the 6-foot-8 forward wore a royal blue jersey and helped No. 8 Kentucky hand UW its first defeat this season.

The Huskies had no answers for Jones and UK freshman Brandon Knight in their 74-67 loss in front of an ESPN audience and a capacity crowd at the Lahaina Civic Center.

Jones notched his second straight double-double and finished with 16 points and a game-high 17 rebounds, and Knight scored a game-high 24 points on 10-for-17 shooting.

Meanwhile, the Huskies' main guns were stymied and the team had difficulty generating points after averaging 107.3 points in its previous three games.

"My biggest fear was that we had played three ball games averaging (107.3) points and rarely did we go deep into the shot clock to guard or offensively," coach Lorenzo Romar said. "My biggest fear was that when that finally happened, we wouldn't be able to adjust quick enough.

"We were working on getting everybody to understand that one day this was going to happen. In this tournament, you're going to find all your weaknesses. You're going to see where they are, all of your warts."

From the opening minutes, Kentucky served notice that this game wasn't going to be easy for UW.

Not like Washington's 43-point first-round win over Virginia on Monday.

"They outplayed us," UW guard Isaiah Thomas said. "They rebounded real well. That was a big key."

The Huskies were again exposed as a subpar rebounding team.

Jones and senior forward Josh Harrellson (14 rebounds) combined for 31 rebounds and helped Kentucky to a 49-39 edge on the glass.

The Wildcats also had the advantage on free throws. They went to the line 34 times and converted 21, while UW was 14 of 22.

Otherwise, the game was nearly a statistical draw.

"We didn't do the little things," Thomas said. "We were right there."

The first half featured wild momentum shifts.

Washington led 6-2 before the Wildcats used a 16-0 run to take a 20-6 lead.

The Huskies fought back and Abdul Gaddy tied the score 30-30 on a long jumper with 1:54 remaining.

Washington led 35-34 at the break behind 10 first-half points from Darnell Gant.

The lead see-sawed early in the second half and Thomas had a chance to put UW ahead with the score tied at 50, but he missed a pair of free throws.

It was that kind of night for the Huskies and Thomas, who was 5 of 10 at the charity stripe and 4 of 14 from the field.

On the ensuing possession, Jones sank two foul shots that gave the Wildcats a 52-50 lead with 9:05 left, and they never trailed again.

The Huskies had their chances in the final minutes.

Thomas cut UW's deficit to two points (69-67) with 47.3 seconds left on a driving, acrobatic layup.

Kentucky converted 5 of 6 free throws in the final seconds to secure the win and improve to 4-0.

The Huskies (3-1) play No. 2 Michigan State at 2 p.m. Wednesday in a consolation game.

Note

• A magnitude 4.7 earthquake centered on the Big Island struck during a stoppage in play with about 6 minutes left, shaking courtside tables and chairs and swaying the baskets. The game resumed once the timeout was over.

"I felt the ground shaking and the rim was moving," Thomas said. "I didn't know if it was an earthquake."

Box score

WASHINGTON
min		fgm-a	ftm-a	or-t	a	pf	pts
B-Amaning	22	3-11	1-2	0-2	0	5	7
Gant	15	4-5	0-0	0-2	0	3	10
Gaddy	28	3-9	2-2	0-3	4	1	8
Thomas	29	4-14	5-10	1-2	1	1	13
Holiday	33	4-7	3-4	3-7	2	1	11
Overton	21	3-7	2-2	1-3	1	5	8
N'Diaye	24	2-4	1-2	3-10	0	2	5
Suggs	6	0-2	0-0	0-0	0	3	0
Wilcox	12	1-5	0-0	1-1	0	1	3
Ross	10	1-1	0-0	1-2	1	1	2
	200	25-65	14-22	15-39	9	23	67

Percentages: FG .385, FT .636. Three-point goals: 3-13, .231 (Gant 2-2, Wilcox 1-2, Holiday 0-1, Overton 0-1, Gaddy 0-1, Suggs 0-2, Thomas 0-4). Team rebounds: 7. Blocked shots: 7 (N'Diaye 5, Holiday 2). Turnovers: 14 (Bryan-Amaning 5, Gaddy 2, Thomas 2, Wilcox 2, Holiday, Gant, Overton). Steals: 8 (Gaddy 3, Holiday 2, Overton 2, Thomas). Technical fouls: Overton.

KENTUCKY
min		fgm-a	ftm-a	or-t	a	pf	pts
Jones	36	4-13	8-14	4-17	2	4	16
Harrellson	34	4-6	0-0	7-14	1	1	9
Miller	24	2-5	3-4	2-3	1	4	8
Knight	28	10-17	3-6	2-4	0	4	24
Liggins	26	2-7	3-6	0-4	2	3	7
Poole Jr	8	0-2	0-0	0-0	0	1	0
Hood	9	0-3	0-0	1-1	0	0	0
Polson	1	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0
Lamb	28	2-10	2-2	0-1	1	4	6
Vargas	6	1-1	2-2	1-1	0	1	4
	200	25-64	21-34	19-49	7	22	74

Percentages: FG .391, FT .618. Three-point goals: 3-17, .176 (Harrellson 1-2, Miller 1-2, Knight 1-6, Poole Jr. 0-1, Lamb 0-2, Hood 0-2, Jones 0-2). Team rebounds: 4. Blocked shots: 9 (Jones 4, Harrellson 2, Lamb, Miller, Liggins). Turnovers: 15 (Knight 8, Harrellson 2, Jones 2, Miller, Lamb, Liggins). Steals: 8 (Liggins 3, Knight, Hood, Jones, Miller, Harrellson). Technical fouls: None.

Washington	35	32	—	67
Kentucky	34	40	—	74

Attendance: 2,400. Officials: Ed Corbett, Bob Donato, Sean Hull.