SEATTLE — The Huskies hope the cure to their early-season struggles is a little bit of home cooking.

And if the recipe calls for home-cooked Duck, well, the Huskies would be OK with that.

After an 0-3 start in Pac-10 play, the Huskies are desperate for a win, as well as an opportunity to show they can still be an offensive power. Washington, known in recent years as an up-tempo team that could score in the 80s with relative ease, has suddenly found itself in a slump, scoring just 158 points in its three conference losses.

Tonight’s game against Oregon could be just the cure Washington is looking for. The Ducks are allowing 73.1 points per game, the most of any team in the conference, and have the eighth-ranked field-goal percentage defense (the Huskies rank 10th).

The Huskies hope Oregon’s up-tempo style of play, along with a home crowd, will lead to their first Pac-10 win.

“It’s going to be fun,” Jon Brockman said. “Being able to come home and have two games with our crowd. With the way things have gone, we’ve got to get some serious work done here. You let too many weekends go like last weekend, then all of a sudden you’re too deep to dig yourself out of the hole. This is a huge weekend for us.”

There is, of course, a tradeoff when it comes to scoring points against the Ducks. Oregon will give up points, but the Ducks can also score in bunches. They lead the conference with an average of 82.3 points per game, and have a seemingly endless supply of scorers.

In addition to Malik Hairston, who leads the team at 18.1 points per game, Oregon has four other players averaging 10.8 points or better. Washington, on the other hand, has just two players in double figures in Brockman (18.1) and Justin Dentmon (10.3)

“They are a hard match up, because everyone on that floor is capable of scoring,” UW coach Lorenzo Romar said. “Malik Hairston is a senior and averaging 18 points a game. Bryce Taylor, I think is an NBA prospect… There is just no one out on the floor that you can overlook when they’re playing.”

Maarty Leunen, who averages 15.3 points and 9.9 rebounds, shares the Pac-10 lead of 10 double-doubles with Brockman. But if the Huskies take him away inside, Hairston, Taylor and Tajuan Porter can all hurt the Huskies from 3-point range. In fact, Leunen can shoot from long range as well, making 45.8 percent of his 3-point attempts.

Porter, last year’s Pac-10 Tournament MVP, has struggled with his shot for much of the season, but seems to be finding his stroke just in time for Washington.

“Well I certainly hope so,” Oregon coach Ernie Kent said when was asked if Porter had his shot back. “Because we’re a different team when he is (shooting well).”

The Huskies have made defense a priority for most of the season, and tonight they’ll have a good chance to see how far they’ve come.

“We’ve been working on defense a lot the last month and a half, and everyone on their team can shoot the three, and most of them can drive, so it’s going to be a big test for everyone on the perimeter,” senior guard Ryan Appleby said. “Even the bigs have to step out and guard guys on the perimeter and things like that. Hopefully that opens up a little bit more for us on offense because they’re a little bit more focused on their offense than their defense.”

Regardless of how they get it done, the Huskies say a win tonight is of the utmost importance.

“It’s real important,” Appleby said. “We’re oh-and-3, we’ve got to get a win. One-and-three still isn’t great, but it’s better than oh-and-4.”

And even though the Ducks are 3-1 in conference play and in third place, Kent isn’t expecting anything but a battle.

“I think that anybody in our conference could have been 0-3 or 0-4 right now as tough as the conference is,” he said. “It is really, really tough. To me, they’re one of the upper-echelon teams. This conference is a tough conference and everything. They’ve been on the road, they’re a very good team, and they’re always tough at home. They’ve always been a tough match up for us, and I’m not expecting anything different up there.”

Contact Herald Writer John Boyle at jboyle@heraldnet.com. For more on University of Washington sports, check out the Huskies blog at heraldnet.com /huskiesblog