UW vs. USC postgame

Published 11:22 pm Thursday, January 22, 2009

Sorry to let that game thread die, but again, these late games require a lot of writing of the game story for tomorrow’s paper during the game.

Anyway, as I’m sure everyone knows by now, Washington held on for a 78-73 win that really wasn’t as close as the score might indicate. The Huskies made some silly mistakes late and USC hit a few threes to make it somewhat interesting.

And on a side note, let that finish be a warning to gamblers, like, for example, my brother who happened to be in Vegas and have the Huskies minus six tonight parlayed with the over. It really doesn’t take much more than a silly foul, missed layup or missed free throw to cost you money. OK, lecture over, I really just wanted make an example at my brother’s expense, because if you can’t have fun with a blog, what can you have fun with?

Back to the game.

Washington won despite a rough night for Jon Brockman, who was 0 for 8 from the field and had just four points (he did have 13 rebounds, however). Justin Dentmon had a big second half, scoring 15 of his 22 points while hitting a couple of big threes to extend leads in close situations.

Romar talked about Dentmon after the game. Dentmon, who made a big splash as a freshman, struggled the last two years and has taken a lot of blame for Washington’s struggle those two years. This year, playing in a new role as more of a shooting guard, he’s thriving once again.

“Whatever you’ve said in past, Justin Dentmon is having a heck of a senior year, and he stepped up big time for us tonight,” Romar said. “That’s what you’re counting on seniors to do, and he did it.”

Isaiah Thomas, Washington’s leading scorer, had just one point in the first half, but finished with 17 for the game.

Thomas said after the game that the Huskies felt some pressure to get a win on the night Brandon Roy had his jersey retired.

“It was weird just knowing that he’s getting his jersey retired and we’ve got to win this game just because of that,” he said. “It was big, it got us real hyped up knowing that, and we came out and played hard.”

Romar also talked a bit about that, as well as the energy provided by the sold-out crowd at Hec Ed.

“Well it certainly didn’t hurt,” he said. “This was great to win this, to make Brandon’s day complete, to make our day complete. And the crowd was the best it’s been all year. Today that crowd was sensational, and that really helped us.”

One of the big surprises for the Huskies is that they actually helped themselves, rather than hurt themselves, at the free throw line. They finished shooting 32 of 40 for a total of 80 percent.

The best postgame exchange of the night came when a reporter asked Romar if he’d ever seen a charge and block called on the same play before.

“Why are you trying to get me in trouble?” he said with a smile.

Asked if that was a no, Romar said. “Yeah, tonight.”

Asked again about the play and if he understood the call, Romar again said, “Why are you trying to get me in trouble?”

Needless to say, nobody seemed to understand that first-half call.