Arizona wins double-OT thriller despite Brandon Roy's heroics

It began just after breakfast and barely ended before dinner.

In between, Washington and Arizona played one of the best basketball games ever seen in Edmundson Pavilion in any of its configurations, as the Wildcats beat the Huskies 96-95 in two overtimes today.

"It was a great game to play in,'' said UW guard Brandon Roy, whose 35 points and last-second heroics at the end of regulation and the first overtime had much to do with lifting it into rarefied air.

And when it finally ended, so had Washington's nation-leading 32-game home-court winning streak, which had begun on Jan. 29, 2004 against these same Arizona Wildcats. UW hadn't lost at home since Jan. 10, 2004 against UCLA.

"It was weird coming into the locker room and seeing guys' heads down,'' said Roy. "It's been a long time. But if it had to go out, I'd say it should go out like that.''

If UW's heads were down after the game, the heads of the 10,000 fans in attendance were seemingly on a swivel during it trying to keep track of all the twists and turns.

Washington led by 13 at halftime as its zone defense flustered Arizona into one-of-15 shooting from the three-point line.

But the Wildcats got hot in the second half and grabbed a 77-70 lead with 1:47 left, having seemingly put the streak to an easy rest.

Then UW rallied, tying the score with 6.4 seconds left when Roy hit a three-pointer to force overtime. Arizona again appeared to have the game in hand late in the first overtime, but Roy ducked between two defenders to nail another three-pointer as time ran out to force a second OT.

After the two teams traded baskets throughout the second OT, Arizona took the lead on a Kirk Walters free throw with 5.1 seconds left.

Finally, Arizona made a lead stand up when a desperate 3-pointer by Ryan Appleby missed at the buzzer, and in the process, staked an early claim to Pac-10 supremacy.

"We definitely made a statement,'' said Arizona senior guard Hassan Adams, who scored 32 points and hit 5-of-7 three-pointers as the Wildcats beat the Huskies for just the second time in the last seven meetings. "The past two, three years they've had our number, so it's fun to come in here and get a game with U-dub.''

It was UW's first double overtime game since a win against Stanford on Feb. 13, 1988, and Washington's first loss this season in 12 outings, a defeat sure to knock the Huskies down a few steps from their current No. 7 ranking in the AP poll.

"You want to say anytime you lose a game, that is how you are going to lose — you gave it your all,'' said UW coach Lorenzo Romar. "I thought for about 46 minutes, we did.''

The four minutes when UW didn't, however, came at the beginning of the second half and probably cost the Huskies the game.

UW led 40-27 at halftime after scoring the last 10 points of the first half, the last three coming on a long jumper by Ryan Appleby. Arizona hit just 10-of-36 shots in the first half as UW went primarily with a 2-3 zone to take advantage of the fact that the Wildcats' biggest weakness is their outside shooting.

"But those guys are good players,'' Romar said. "They are not going to do that for 40 minutes.''

Indeed, Arizona hit its first four three-pointers of the second half — all in the first 1:48 — to crawl right back.

"We just came out lackadaisical for some reason instead of trying to put them away,'' Appleby said.

Arizona finally took the lead with 4:31 left on a lay-in by freshman guard Marcus Williams, a Roosevelt High grad who had a successful homecoming with 16 points and nine rebounds.

But down six with under a minute left, UW took advantage of some porous Arizona free throw shooting to force overtime on Roy's three-pointer. Then Roy did it again to force a second overtime.

"They wouldn't go away,'' said Adams. "This game is going to be [regarded as] a classic.''

But by the end, UW barely had enough players as point guard Justin Dentmon fouled out late in regulation, and Roy, Bobby Jones and Jon Brockman all fouled out in the second overtime.

Brockman's final foul was a loose ball call that sent Walters to the line for the decisive free throw.

"That's a tough way to end a game like this on a loose-ball foul on a rebound,'' Roy said.

Arizona improved to 9-3 overall and more importantly, 2-0 in Pac-10 play by starting out the conference season with wins at WSU and UW.

Still, no one will be surprised if the Pac-10 race is still up for grabs when the two meet again in the regular-season finale March 4 in Tucson.

"I'm sure they will be looking out for us,'' Roy said. "And we are going to be looking for them.''