UW vs. Cal game thread
Published 6:01 pm Saturday, January 10, 2009
Huskies lose a heart-breaker
The Huskies had a lot of chances to put this one away, but Cal kept fighting back, and is escaping Seattle with an 88-85 win. Theo Roberts put the Bears up 86-85 with a three-point play with 15.2 seconds left, giving Cal it’s first lead since 1-0 (crazy, I know). Justin Dentmon, who helped carry the Huskies in the second and third overtimes, missed a shot to put the Huskies ahead about three seconds left. Patrick Christopher then hit two free throws after being fouled with 0.6 seconds left. Christopher finished with a career high 27 points to lead Cal, while Jerome Randle had 23. Dentmon finished with 24 points and Isaiah Thomas had 22 for the Huskies. Brockman finished with 16 points and matched a career-high with 18 rebounds.
Washington falls to 2-1 in Pac-10 play, while Cal is now 4-0. That also ends a nine-game winning streak for the Huskies.
Justin Dentmon
And even more overtime
Well if the Huskies don’t pull this one out, they’ll certainly be kicking themselves for letting it get away. The Huskies led by five with 33 seconds left, and by four with 20 seconds left but a foul on Jerome Randle shooting a three allowed Cal to make it a one possession game. Then, down three in the final seconds, Patrick Christopher missed an off-balanced three, but D.J. Seeley was fouled by Isaiah Thomas on the putback and made the free throw to tie it at 77 with 1.3 seconds left.
And if you’re wondering, the last time Washington played three overtimes was in 1984, when the Huskies did it twice against Idaho and UCLA.
More overtime
Two halves and a five-minute overtime weren’t enough to decide this one, so it’s time for a second overtime with the score tied at 64.
Washington led by as many as three in overtime twice, but a Patrick Christopher three tied the game with 2:11 left, and neither team scored again. The Huskies had a chance to take the lead with just a few seconds left, but Isaiah Thomas’ three missed. Jerome Randle dribbled the miss down the floor and pulled up for a long three that missed. Randle had time for another dribble or two, but took the shot early.
Overtime
Quincy Pondexter missed a shot for Washington with 35 seconds left—he’s now 0 for 7 today—giving Cal a chance to hold for the final shot. After a timeout, Jerome Randle held the ball until about eight second were left, then passed to Theo Robertson, whose shot rattled off the rim and bounced off as the buzzer sounded.
Huskies by three, one minute left. No wait, tie game
Looks we’ll see another exciting finish here at Hec Ed. Cal has slowly been chipping away at the UW lead, and now has the ball down by three.
And now we’re tied, ans Jerome Randle just drained a three with 43.9 seconds left. Randle had just four points in the first half, and now has nine in the second half.
UW 56, Cal 48, 4:50 left in the game
The Huskies continue to hold a comfortable lead ever since going on that 11-0 run, but there’s still plenty of time left, especially for a team that shoots as well as Cal.
Washington just called a timeout, and it looks like it might have mostly been to give Jon Brockman a quick breather. Brockman looked pretty gassed on the last couple of possessions, and the Huskies even called a second timeout just now when time ran out on the first one. Brockman, who has 12 points and 14 rebounds, is staying in the game though.
Huskies up by 11 now
Washington is on an 11-0 run and now leads 52-41, its biggest lead of the game.
Huge props (hey’s it a blog, I can write that) go to Justin Holiday right now. Romar, likely tired of watching Patrick Christopher kill the Huskies, put Holiday in the game a little while ago, and the sophomore has shut Christopher down since.
Thomas is still on the bench, though it looks like he’s coming back out after this timeout. Venoy Overton did nice job filling in for Thomas though.
UW lead up to five
Cal tied the game at 39 and again at 41, and those were the first ties since 0-0, as Washington had led the entire game since taking a 2-1 lead. Washington has scored five straight, however, making it 45-41.
Patrick Christopher is up to 20 points now, and I get the feeling we’re going to see more of Justin Holiday guarding him the rest of the way.
Brockman and Thomas are on the bench now, though we’ll probably see both back in action soon, especially considering the fact that Venoy Overton just picked up his third foul as well.
Huskies still clinging to the lead
Five minutes into the half and the Huskies still lead, but by just two, 37-35. Patrick Christopher has scored all seven of Cal’s points so far and now has 18. Isaiah Thomas is up to 17 for the Huskies, but he just picked up his third foul on another charge—and that call was a little less debatable—so he just went back to the bench.
Huskies 32, Cal 28, halftime
The Huskies again suffered a bit of a lapse in the final minutes of the half, much like they did against Stanford on Thursday, but this time the Huskies did get a late bucket and Cal missed it’s final shot, so Washington still has a lead.
Thomas leads Washington with 13 points and three assists, while Brockman has seven points and seven rebounds. Both sat out the end of the half with two fouls, though they should return to start the second half.
Patrick Christopher leads Cal with 11 points and four rebounds. The Bears are one of the best shooting teams in the Pac-10, but the Huskies so far have held them to 30.8 percent shooting from the field and 36.4 percent three-point shooting.
The most encouraging stat for the Bears is that they are tied with Washington in rebounding right now, as both teams have 19 boards, and they have nine second-chance points to just two for Washington. That’s usually a stat the Huskies can dominate.
Also worth noting, Brockman passed Steve Hawes on the UW career scoring list, and is now sixth all time with 1,517 points. Next on the list is James Edwards with 1,548 points.
Huskies 29, Cal 20, 3:44 left in half
Thomas is now up to 13 points, though he did just pick up his second foul on a charge call that the fans and UW coaches certainly didn’t like.
He’ll leave the game for a bit now, and both he and Brockman have two fouls, which could be a factor as this game goes on. Actually, now that I look at it, Matthew Bryan-Amaning and Darnell Gant also have two fouls each.
Isaiah’s heating up
Washington now leads 25-17 with 5:46 left in the half thanks in large part to the play of freshman guard Isaiah Thomas. Thomas hit a three at the 11:57 mark, starting a stretch in which he’s scored 11 of the Huskies last 14 points, all in the last six minutes. Other than that three, all of Thomas’ points have come on drives to the hoop, including an impressive reverse layin on Washington’s last possession that led to Cal taking a timeout.
UW 14, Cal 8, 11:41 left in the first half
As I mentioned earlier, the Huskies are playing well on the defensive end—they just forced Cal’s sixth turnover and the Bears are three for 10 from the field. But the Huskies probably feel like they should be winning by more given Cal’s offensive struggles.
Huskies out to an early lead
Nice start for Washington, especially on the defensive end, where they are making things very difficult for the Bears. Cal is currently one for six from the field and has turned the ball over on three straight possessions.
Jon Brockman has five points and three rebounds and the Huskies are up 9-4 with 15:44 left in the first half.
As was the case for the Stanford game Thursday, there’s a big crowd here and a lot of energy.
PREGAME
Just a few minutes until tipoff of what should be another game. The Huskies’ Pac-10 opener against Stanford was certainly a fun one, and Cal (14-2, 3-0 Pac-10) should provide another tough test for the Dawgs.
Looks like the Huskies are going with their usual starting lineup of Brockman, Pondexter, Gant, Thomas and Dentmon. For those of you watching at home, you’ll notice that Matthew Bryan-Amaning, usually one of the first Huskies off the bench, is sporting a new look today. The sophomore forward shaved his head sometime between Thursday’s game and today. Bryan-Amaning had “MBA” shaved into the side of his head for the last game, so I think it’s a bit of a shame he went and got rid of that. Oh well.
This game features the the nation’s top rebounding team against the top three-point shooting team (percentage wise anyway), so it may very well come down to whether the UW can slow Cal’s shooting or whether Cal can be competitive on the boards.
