UW Men's Basketball | Huskies roll past Oregon, 103-84

A half dozen Washington men's basketball players lingered in the stands long after dismantling Northwest rival Oregon in a Valentine's Day matinee massacre that was more lopsided than Saturday's 103-84 score would suggest.

No one wanted to leave, recounting their latest conquest with family and friends among the sellout crowd of 10,000 at Edmundson Pavilion. The Huskies almost pounded the Ducks into a historic defeat with a near-perfect first-half. Washington led by as much as 26 points before "shifting into cruise control," as Justin Dentmon said.

Shifting into idle might be a more apt description.

Oregon's Tajuan Porter suddenly found the range on a deadly three-pointer that propelled the Ducks' comeback bid. Garret Sim, another three-point specialist, drained a trey and suddenly Oregon trailed by just 14 points with 5:51 remaining.

Yet as poorly as they played defensively in the second half, Dentmon never believed the Huskies would give Oregon its first Pac-10 men's basketball victory this season.

"I just thought we were playing bad defense and if you want to be a champion, you can't play bad defense," he said. "You've got to finish games out."

The same might be said for this Pac-10 season. Washington finds itself with a 1 ½-game conference lead before traveling this week to No. 11 UCLA on Thursday and USC on Saturday. With a Los Angeles sweep, the Huskies (19-6 overall, 10-3 Pac-10) could go a long way in securing their first outright Pac-10 championship.

"We can come back next week, come back Monday and we're in third or fourth place," coach Lorenzo Romar said. "That's how this league is right now."

The victory will likely return the Huskies into The Associated Press Top 25 poll. They were ranked 24th in the ESPN/USA Today coaches' poll.

The win also gives Dentmon a solid platform to stump for Pac-10 Player of the Week honors, a distinction no Husky has won in what is becoming a special season.

Washington's senior co-captain capped an amazing week that began with a 28-point outburst against Oregon State and scored 21 points on 8-for-13 shooting, including three three-pointers on Saturday.

Dentmon was one of four Huskies to score at least 20 points.

Freshman guard Isaiah Thomas rebounded from a nine-point outing in the previous games and led the UW with 24 points, four assists and four steals, which offset four turnovers. He also converted 10 of 13 free throws.

Senior forward Jon Brockman shrugged off a sluggish first half and finished with 21 points and 18 rebounds. And junior forward Quincy Pondexter added 20 points, including eight from the foul line.

"We can attack from different areas and we have a lot of different guys who can put the ball in the hoop," Brockman said. "That's hard for teams to guard because if you're double-teaming someone, somebody else is wide open on the other side.

It all worked perfectly in the first half when Washington raced ahead to a 49-25 lead. Dentmon punctuated the early dominance when he ripped a pass away from Porter at midcourt and flushed his first in-game dunk at the other end seconds before halftime.

Porter extracted a small measure of revenge in the second half, exploding for 27 points after the break and finishing with a season-high 33. Michael Dunigan added 14 points and eight rebounds before fouling out, LeKendric Longmire had 16 points.

Oregon (6-19, 0-13) actually outscored Washington 59-54 in the second half, but it wasn't enough to offset the Huskies near-flawless opening half.

"We didn't want to be the first team to give them a win," Dentmon said.

Percy Allen: 206-464-2278 or pallen@seattletimes.com