SEATTLE — After the way that he’s started his senior season, University of Washington forward Quincy Pondexter doesn’t need much help on the basketball court.
But the helping hands came at a good time Friday night.
After Pondexter scored Washington’s first 13 points of the second half, the UW bench chipped in to aid the Huskies against a stubborn San Jose State squad. Reserves Tyreese Breshers and Elston Turner helped spark a 14-5 run midway through the second half and the Huskies defeated the Spartans 80-70.
Pondexter carried the offensive load for most of the night, hitting a personal career high in points for the third game in a row, with 30. He also set a career high with 15 rebounds.
As head coach Lorenzo Romar said afterward: “Quincy had a monster game.”
But with scoring guard Isaiah Thomas off target for most of the night, and fellow starter Venoy Overton saddled with foul trouble, the Huskies (4-0) had to look to their bench to take them over the top.
Breshers, a 255-pound bruiser, scored back-to-back baskets to help UW open up a 54-45 lead with 12:52 remaining, then a pair of Turner 3-pointers all but put the game away.
Breshers finished with 12 points and seven rebounds while Turner chipped in six points. UW’s reserves combined for 28 points.
Once again, the night belonged to Pondexter. After a somewhat quiet first half that saw him make just three of eight shots but still come away with 12 points, Pondexter could do no wrong over the first 6½ minutes of the second half. He scored all of the Huskies’ first 13 points, but still UW led by just five points, 50-45. Former Husky Adrian Oliver was putting on quite an offensive show of his own to keep SJSU in the game.
Breshers made a nice power move off the glass for the Huskies’ first non-Pondexter points of the second half, then he added a putback 38 seconds later to push the lead to nine. Turner made his next two 3-point attempts, and eventually the 14th-ranked Huskies’ pulled out to a 16-point lead and their fourth consecutive win. They led by double digits the final 9:43.
Thomas, who led the team in scoring last season, scored 16 points on 4-for-13 shooting. He did most of his damage down the stretch, after the Huskies already had put the Spartans (1-1) away.
Thomas was the last UW player to score 30 points in a game, having done it in the season opener one week earlier.
The Huskies’ four starters besides Pondexter shot a combined 6-for-23 from the field.
Freshman phenom Abdul Gaddy had a team-high seven assists in 25 minutes for UW, his most extensive action of the season while he filled in for Overton. Gaddy also was a big reason why the Huskies had only 12 turnovers for the game.
SJSU’s Oliver had 32 points, eight rebounds and four assists in his return to Hec Edmondson Pavilion. A member of Pondexter’s recruiting class in 2006, Oliver left school midway through his sophomore year at UW.
Pondexter admitted after Friday’s game that the two were on bad terms when Oliver, his former roommate, decided to leave the team.
“I felt stranded,” Pondexter said late Friday night. “He left me as a teammate, he left me as a friend, and he left me with the rent.”
The pair went almost two years without talking to one another before Oliver called Pondexter two months ago after hearing a false rumor that Pondexter had gotten married.
“I told him, ‘Man, if I’d have known it was you (on the phone), I wouldn’t have answered,’” Pondexter said Friday night.
Friday night’s game seemed to provide a bit of closure for the former teammates.
“He got what he wanted,” Pondexter said. “He’s at a school where he can score as many points as he wants. I’d rather be here and get the W.”
The two teams combined to shoot 68 free throws. At one point, Romar was whistled for a technical foul for arguing a call. Four SJSU players had three fouls at halftime, and two of them eventually fouled out.
The constant whistles wore down at least one Husky.
“I thought the game was soft, with all those whistles,” Breshers said. “When it’s like that, I’m like: what did I go to the weight room for?”
The Huskies were 22-for-31 from the line, helping offset a poor performance from beyond the 3-point arc. While Turner was 2-for-5 from 3-point range, the rest of the Huskies shot a combined 2-for-13 from the outside.
The Huskies have a nine-day layoff before returning to the court for a home game against Montana on Nov. 29.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.