Huskies crank it up

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, January 12, 2006

SEATTLE – Their minds may not have been on the game, but you’d never know it by how they played.

With teammate Kayla Burt hospitalized after having a heart-related episode early in the first half, the Washington women’s basketball team still managed to have its best offensive game in nearly three years.

Cameo Hicks led five players in double figures as the Huskies defeated UCLA 96-75 Thursday at Hec Edmundson Pavilion. It was the most points for Washington since a 111-77 victory over UCLA on Feb. 1, 2003. That also was the last time the Huskies had defeated the Bruins. Washington also shot a season-best 47 percent, and the game marked the first time this season that more than four players reached double figures.

But all of those impressive feats were overshadowed by Burt’s situation. The senior guard from Arlington, who survived a cardiac arrest on New Year’s Eve of 2002, left the game midway through the first half when the defibrillator in her chest was activated, shocking her heart back to a normal rhythm. She was in good condition at the University of Washington Medical Center Thursday night.

“It was a very difficult challenge when Kayla went off the bench,” Washington coach June Daugherty said. “That’s a tough situation for everybody. Hats off to them. They handled it. They turned it into ‘Let’s just play hard for Kayla,’ and that’s what they did.”

The Husky players said it was not especially difficult to focus after Burt left, but the initial shock of what happened was tough.

“Obviously there are bigger things than basketball,” said senior Kristen O’Neill, a Meadowdale High alum. “When Kayla said her defibrillator went off, the last thing on our mind at that moment was what play are we running next. Of course we wanted to make sure Kayla is OK.”

“I was sitting right by her on the bench when her defibrillator went off,” Hicks said. “I got kind of scared for a second when she said, ‘My defibrillator just shocked me.’ It made us kind of nervous. …We had to stay focused on the game even though Kayla was probably at the back of a lot of people’s minds.”

Still, the Huskies (5-1 Pacific-10, 12-3 overall) were able to pull themselves together enough to win their 12th game in a row at home. The loss dropped UCLA to 4-3, 9-7 and was its sixth loss in seven road games this season.

Washington’s defense and rebounding was solid again. The Huskies held the highest-scoring team in the league to 38 percent shooting, forced 21 turnovers and outrebounded the Bruins 49-33. Washington handled two of UCLA’s star guards, holding Lisa Willis to 11 points and 4-for-14 shooting from the field and Noelle Quinn to five points and 1-for-9 shooting. Willis was averaging 19.5 points and Quinn was at 16.5 entering the game.

“We wanted to stop the penetration when we could and get out on the shooters,” Hicks said.

But it was on offense that Washington was most surprising. The Huskies had been winning despite their offense, but against UCLA they made 10 of 24 3-pointers and had 17 second-chance points.

“They just got the momentum,” UCLA coach Kathy Olivea said. “When they didn’t shoot the ball well, they got the offensive board, which got them even more momentum.”

Washington led 42-37 early in the second half when Hicks came alive. The junior guard, the only Husky averaging double figures, scored 13 of her 17 points in a 20-3 run that put Washington ahead 62-40. She started the run with a bank shot followed by a 3-pointer. She sank two more threes in the run and Jill Bell capped it off with another 3-pointer. Washington never led by fewer than 16 the rest of the way.