SEATTLE – Jon Brockman said his first game against California this season was one of the worst of his Huskies career.
And it’s hard to argue. In Washington’s overtime loss to the Golden Bears on Jan. 13, Brockman had 11 points and six rebounds while struggling with foul trouble.
He made up for it on Thursday.
The former Snohomish star and Washington captain made sure the Huskies weren’t out-worked as they had been in the loss to Cal, getting his 10th double-double of the season and leading the UW to a 79-71 victory over the Golden Bears in front of a sold-out crowd at Hec Edmundson Pavilion.
The win moves Washington (5-7 Pacific-10, 15-8 overall) past Cal (4-7, 12-11) and into seventh place in the Pac-10 with Stanford coming to Hec Ed on Sunday. Washington, which has won four of its past five, is now two games behind sixth-place Arizona and 21/2 behind the fifth-place Cardinal.
The win was just the way the UW wanted to start its stretch of five of its next seven Pac-10 games at home as the Huskies try to make a late-season push for an NCAA Tournament berth.
Brockman made sure effort would not be an issue for Washington, tying his career high with 14 rebounds and scoring 22 points – 17 in the second half – on 8-for-13 shooting. Brockman punctuated his night with a dunk with eight seconds left to clinch the victory.
“Thank goodness for Jon Brockman,” said Lorenzo Romar, who won his 99th game as the Huskies coach. “He just played a sensational basketball game. Like he’s done so many times this year, he just said, ‘I’m going to show you guys how to compete.’ And it’s hard not to follow his example.”
“When we were at Cal, they just came out and punked us,” Brockman said. “They socked us in the face numerous times. It wasn’t just rebounding, it was loose balls, it was everything. They came out and really took it to us.”
Brockman said rebounding was a big key for Washington, which has only been outrebounded twice this season. Of course, one of the times was against the Golden Bears, who had 18 second-chance points and outrebounded the Huskies by 11 in their earlier win. On Thursday, Cal had just four second-chance points and the Bears were outrebounded 37-23.
“Rebounding is one of the things that I really enjoy doing,” said Brockman, who opened the game with five rebounds in the first five minutes. “That’s one of my strong points. When our team doesn’t do good in that, when I don’t do good in that, I feel like it can affect the game.”
Brockman got help from Spencer Hawes, who had 10 of his 16 points and all three of his blocks in the second half, and Justin Dentmon, who had 12 points, including four key free throws in the final minute. Ryan Appleby also had 12 points for Washington. As a team, Washington shot 56.9 percent and held Cal to 44.6 percent from the field. The Huskies were also 18-for-24 from the free-throw line to Cal’s 4-for-7.
Brockman helped Washington take control early in the second half, scoring six points and grabbing three rebounds in the first five minutes, giving the Huskies a 45-36 lead as Cal went scoreless for the first 5:07 of the half.
But a 9-2 run by the Bears that included a 3-pointer by Ryan Anderson and four points by Ayinde Ubaka pulled Cal within two with 4:52 to play.
Brockman scored five-straight points to spark a 10-0 UW run. He backed Cal’s Theo Robertson down before finishing with a quick spin for a layup, then converted a three-point play. Hawes finished the run with a jump shot for a 71-59 lead and the Golden Bears never got closer than six the rest of the way.
Despite shooting 66.7 percent to just 44 percent for Cal in the first half, Washington was unable to pull away, leading just 37-36. The Huskies didn’t help themselves, turning the ball over 10 times to just two for Cal.
Ubaka, Cal’s all-conference guard, didn’t start while he recovers from a stomach virus but came on 31/2 minutes in and his 3-pointer with 10:48 to go gave Cal a 20-19 lead. But back-to-back buckets by Adrian Oliver and Artem Wallace sparked a 10-2 Husky run that included five-straight points by Appleby, giving Washington a 29-22 lead, the largest by either team in the first half. But Cal answered with back-to-back baskets by Robertson and a 3-pointer by Alex Pribble with eight seconds to go before halftime sent Cal to the locker room down one.
Brockman said knowing that Washington’s schedule is favorable the Huskies are now 14-1 at home adds to the team’s confidence that it can get an at-large NCAA berth.
“We have the tools,” Brockman said. “It’s a matter of competing, getting down and dirty and getting on a roll here.”
“I’m proud of our guys tonight,” Romar said. “The one thing that stands out is the difference on the boards from last game to this game. …This was a great team win for us, a great way to open our homestand.”
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