UW vs. UCLA postgame
Published 6:35 pm Saturday, January 24, 2009
A very impressive win for the Huskies here today, and likely the kind of win that will put Washington in the top 25 when Monday’s polls come out for the first time since early in the 2006-2007 season.
Washington’s 86 points were the most allowed by UCLA since Nov. 23, 2005, and the Huskies did it with contributions from a lot of different places.
Jon Brockman helped get things going early after Washington stumbled out of the gate and fell behind 9-1, and he scored 18 points to bounce back from a four-point outing on Thursday.
Venoy Overton scored seven of his 10 points in the first half and played disruptive defense while filling in for Justin Denmon, who was in foul trouble.
Dentmon, who picked up his fourth fould midway through the half, came up big in the final minutes once he did get back in the game, scoring eight points during the 12-0 run that helped Washington clinch the game.
“That was a great, great team effort,” said Lorenzo Romar. “That’s the beauty of having four or five guys in double figures. We haven’t had that luxury the last couple of years.”
And speaking of the last couple of years, it’s hard not to think about the past when looking at this team and wonder if this is in fact a team that can return to the NCAA tournament. At 6-1 in Pac-10 play, the Huskies are now alone in first place, and in good position to make the tournament even if they stumble a bit at some point.
The win was the fifth straight for the Huskies at home against the Bruins, and in each of the last three UCLA has been ranked while the Huskies have not.
The Huskies again frustrated UCLA All-American Darren Collison, who has never played well in Seattle. Asked what the secret is, Justin Dentmon said, “We’re like bees. We buzz and we bug him. I just know that we did a good job on him. Our main focus was if we stopped him we’d stop their offense, because he’s the key to their offense.”
One of the side stories was the showdown between Holiday brothers, UW’s Justin and UCLA’s Jrue. Neither had big games statistically, however.
Fans chanted “Justin’s better” when Jrue went to the line, getting a few laughs.
“Yeah, I expected that to happen, but at the same time, when I go to UCLA I’m probably going to hear it back, so I’ve just got to be ready for it,” said Justin. “I didn’t really like it though because I don’t like people talking about my brother, but in this case it’s ok.”
Asked what the interaction was like between the two on the floor, Justin Holiday said:
“Yeah, we joked around a little bit. One of the free throws—I don’t know if I’m supposed to say this—but when we were supposed to box out, he was like ‘If you don’t go hard right here I won’t go hard.’ So I said, ‘OK, cool,’ and we just chilled. Little stuff like that. There were some little battles out there, but we tried to keep it happy.”
All for now. Enjoy the rest of your Saturday.
