Looking Good

Published 9:00 pm Wednesday, January 24, 2007

The first half couldn’t have gone much better for the Huskies, who lead 51-40 at halftime. After back-to-back games in which Washington was clearly outworked and overmatched, the UW has put on a spirited effort behind the play of Justin Dentmon. The sophomore guard was put back in the starting lineup today and has rewarded the decision by scoring a game-high 15 points (including 7-for-7 from the foul line) and dishing out four assists. He’s played tough defense as well and has limited his mistakes to two turnovers and had an outstanding series where he threw an alley-oop to Phil Nelson, drew a charge then penetrated and dished to Spencer Hawes for a layup. The Huskies are having some trouble getting the ball inside to Hawes though, as he’s just 2-for-4.

Ryan Appleby is also playing well, making three 3-pointers and scoring 11 points. Nelson has seven points after going scorelss the past two games. Washington’s defense has also been good, forcing nine turnovers leading to 15 points. The Huskies are shooting 52.8 percent and Oregon is shooting 55.6 percent.

Oregon has been a bit surprising in that it is going a bit bigger than it has typically. Ray Schafer, who hasn’t played a minute in a Pac-10 game, all of a sudden was a factor in the first half, scoring eight points on 4-for-5 shooting. But Washington has done a good job against Malik Hairston, who hasn’t taken a shot and has three fouls. Chamberlain Oguchi and Tajuan Porter each have two fouls. For the Huskies, Adrian Oliver, Appleby, Quincy Pondexter and Nelson have two fouls.