Huskies advance to Sweet 16 with 97-79 rout of Pacific

BOISE, Idaho – Washington is making it a lot harder to question its No. 1 seed in the Albuquerque Regional.

The Huskies advanced to the round of 16 for the first time since 1998 with a convincing 97-79 victory over Pacific today.

Nate Robinson scored 18 of his 23 points in the second half, Bobby Jones scored 19 and Will Conroy had 10 assists for Washington (29-5).

Nate Simmons scored 15 for the Pac-10 champion Huskies, whose top seed was the most disputed among the four No. 1s. But Washington backed it up well against Pacific.

The Huskies never trailed and pulled away by going 19-for-31 (61 percent) from the field in the second half. They finished shooting 56.3 percent (36-of-64) for the game. Next up is the winner of Louisville-Georgia Tech in Thursday's regional semifinal.

Other than a brief push by eighth-seeded Pacific (27-4) midway through the second half, the Huskies dominated and answered their doubters after holding off Montana 88-77 in the opening round.

Guillaume Yango led Pacific with 17 points and 10 rebounds and Christian Maraker added 12 points for the Tigers, but the Swedish forward was shut out in the second half.

Washington fans started the chant of "Sweet 16" in the final two minutes. The rowdy fans gave the Huskies an early edge and even members of the Arizona pep band joined in to cheer on their Pac-10 rivals as they waited for the Wildcats' game against UAB later in the day.

It was quickly apparent who would be advancing.

The Huskies made 11 of their first 16 shots in the second half and opened with a 13-4 run, which included four straight points after Pacific coach Bob Thomason was called for a technical for complaining that an offensive foul wasn't called on Simmons when he drove hard to the basket.

Simmons made both free throws and Jones, who was fouled after pulling down the rebound on Simmons' original layup, was 2-for-2 on his free throws to put the Huskies up by 52-36.

The Huskies increased the lead to 17 before Pacific started to rally midway through the half. Yango missed an opportunity for a three-point play, but Matt Kemper got the rebound off the missed free throw and put it back to cut the margin to 73-62.

After Robinson went 1-for-2 on two free throws with 9:16 remaining, Jasko Korajkic got the lead down to single digits with a 3-pointer that made it 74-65. Pacific's fans had their first real opportunity to cheer.

Robinson quickly put an end to that with back-to-back field goals, and the Huskies coasted the rest of the way.