Huskies trying to shake off losses
Published 11:57 pm Friday, February 1, 2008
SEATTLE — Thursday night was ugly. No one in purple was arguing that a day after Washington lost to Stanford by 14 points at home, but the Huskies just aren’t ready to push the panic button quite yet.
After winning three straight games to get to .500 in Pac-10 play, the Huskies lost by 15 on the road to Arizona, then on Thursday suffered their first double-digit loss at home since Dec. 3, 2003, falling 65-51 to the Cardinal.
Washington’s players aren’t used to suffering such a humiliation in the comforts of Hec Edmundson Pavilion.
“It was a terrifying feeling (Thursday) night losing here to Stanford, and it was a feeling I’ve never felt in my year and a half being here as a Husky,” sophomore forward Quincy Pondexter said. “Right now it’s one of those times that we really have to find another identity again. It sucks to be saying that in the middle of the season, but it’s true. We have to come out and figure out exactly what was winning those games for us and go back to doing that.”
Today, the Huskies will try to find that winning identity when they host California at 3 p.m. Lorenzo Romar said that while he was obviously unhappy with the way Thursday’s game turned out, he isn’t going to make too much out of one bad loss at home.
“This is always a place we can count on that we’re usually going to do a good job,” Romar said. “Let’s just hope this was an aberration. … If it happens again in another four years, all right. We’ll take them every four years if that happens, but let’s just hope this isn’t a pattern. I’m big into patterns as opposed to once.”
Washington hasn’t been swept at home in Pacific-10 Conference play since losing to USC and UCLA in 2004, and avoiding a similar fate looks much harder now than it did earlier this week. Cal, which was 2-5 in the Pac-10 at the time, upset No. 9 Washington State in Pullman, handing the Cougars their first home loss of the season.
The Bears will again be without 6-foot-11 senior center DeVon Hardin, who stayed in Berkeley for this road trip with a viral infection. The Bears considered having Hardin fly up for the Washington game, but the team decided Friday to have him stay home to recuperate.
Without Hardin, more pressure falls on 6-10 forward Ryan Anderson, and the sophomore handled it just fine Thursday, scoring 27 points against the Cougars. Anderson, a sophomore, leads the conference in scoring with 21.6 points per game, and is fourth in rebounding with 9.6 per game.
Duke transfer Jamal Boykin also helped ease the loss of Hardin, finishing with 12 points, seven rebounds and three assists in his first start for the Bears. So even without Hardin, the Huskies expect a battle today.
Romar said that against Stanford his team “didn’t have an edge to us. Our fists weren’t clenched.” But that doesn’t mean he plans to make any major changes in the wake of the loss.
“Not after this game,” Romar said. “I haven’t seen a pattern yet. I think you change the lineups when you start to see a negative pattern somewhere.”
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
