UW men pull out sluggish win

The Washington Huskies played in relative anonymity, with a football contest a few miles from Edmundson Pavilion deflecting much of the attention.

All most people may notice is that the Huskies beat Arizona State 64-53 on Saturday, which ultimately is all that really mattered.

"Now we got a win under our belts so we can stop worrying about it," said center Spencer Hawes after the Huskies picked up their first Pac-10 men's basketball victory of the season after three losses, and improved to 11-4 overall.

Little else, however, roused much excitement. Arizona State, in its first year under coach Herb Sendek, played a slumbering style that resulted in Washington's lowest point total of the season.

"It just felt like a slow game," said forward Jon Brockman.

The Huskies, though, eventually proved able to adjust to the pace, outscoring Arizona State 21-13 in the final 10 minutes to pull away.

They also proved able to play some defense, something that had been an issue after allowing UCLA and Arizona to blister the nets the last two games.

Washington held Arizona State to 7-of-26 shooting in the second half (26.9 percent) and 17 of 49 for the game (34.7 percent), the lowest against the Huskies this season.

"Defense is what turned it around for us in the second half," said Brockman. "We proved against Arizona [a 96-87 loss] you can have great offense and still get beat."

Brockman, meanwhile, was one of the few Huskies who played well offensively, scoring 16 points and grabbing 10 rebounds for his seventh double-double of the season.

The only other Husky to hit double figures was guard Ryan Appleby, who scored a game-high 20, hitting 6 of 8 three-pointers in taking advantage of a Sun Devils zone defense that seemed designed to put the clamps on Hawes.

Hawes was held to nine points — just the third time this season he hasn't hit double figures — and none came after halftime. He made just 4 of 12 shots for the game.

"Pick your poison," said Huskies coach Lorenzo Romar of Arizona State's defensive strategy. "They did not want to get beaten on the inside. That really freed up Ryan Appleby for some really good looks from the three-point line."

Hawes didn't think Arizona State's defense did much to slow him, saying, "I just wasn't making shots."

Appleby was, rebounding from an off night against Arizona when he was 3 of 9 overall and 1 of 7 on three-pointers.

"I knew coming in I had to knock down some open shots to spread them [defenders] out," Appleby said.

Still, it took longer than most expected for the Huskies to finally pull away from the Sun Devils (6-9, 0-4).

In fact, with the crowd several thousand fewer than the announced sellout of 10,000, the Huskies' sluggish start matched the lack of energy in the building.

Arizona State led 8-3 early, and the game stayed tight throughout the first half. There were 11 lead changes and five ties before the Huskies grabbed a 31-28 halftime lead.

"We knew if we could stop the ball and make them play a halfcourt game we would have a chance to win it," said Sun Devils freshman guard Derek Glasser, who scored 13.

The Huskies never trailed in the second half, but the lead was just 43-40 with less than 10 minutes left before Brockman keyed a 7-2 run with a layin and three free throws to give Washington a 50-42 lead.

Two long Appleby three-pointers put the Huskies ahead 56-46 with 2:27 left. Arizona State cut it to 57-51 with 1:05 left before Washington put it away at the line.

For the second straight game, the Huskies started Appleby at point guard in place of Justin Dentmon, and Phil Nelson at forward in place of Quincy Pondexter.

Romar said afterward he liked the lineup and indicated he would stay with it as the Huskies hit the road for three in a row: Thursday at Stanford, Saturday at Cal and Jan. 20 at Washington State.

Those games figure to go a long way toward determining if the Huskies can get back in the Pac-10 race or even stay in the hunt for an at-large NCAA tournament berth. Washington is 0-3 on the road.

"We're hungry to go on the road and prove to ourselves, not anyone else but ourselves, that we can play on the road," Romar said. "We've got to be able to turn the corner."

Bob Condotta: 206-515-5699 or bcondotta@seattletimes.com. Read his blogs on Washington football and basketball at www.seattletimes.com/huskies.