SEATTLE — Justin Dentmon rescued Washington from a rare off night by its leader, scoring 22 points, and the surprising Huskies beat Southern California 78-73 on Thursday night.
Senior Jon Brockman had 13 rebounds but scored a season-low four points and finished without a field goal for the first time since his freshman season. Yet dynamic freshman Isaiah Thomas, the team’s co-leader in scoring coming in,
scored 17 to aid Dentmon for the Huskies (14-4, 5-1 Pac-10). They won for the 12th time in 13 games.
Washington, off to its best start in four years, hosts No. 13 UCLA (15-3, 5-1) Saturday for the conference lead.
Daniel Hackett scored a season-high 24 points and prized freshman DeMar DeRozan added 16 — but just four after halftime — for the Trojans (12-6, 3-4).
They lost for the third time in five games.
USC was without leading scorer Dwight Lewis, who has an ankle injury. Freshman Leonard Washington replaced him and scored just 2 points on 1-for-8 shooting before fouling out.
The sloppy, sputtering game of fouls and mistakes turned when DeRozan got his fourth foul midway through the second half. He arrived late and knocked Dentmon into the Huskies’ bench as Dentmon swished a 3-pointer. The 4-point play put Washington up 53-44 with 9:52 remaining, and a crowd already jazzed by the pregame ceremony retiring the jersey number of former Huskies hometown star Brandon Roy was roaring again.
Roy, the Portland Trail Blazers All-Star who led the Huskies to three consecutive NCAA tournaments ending in 2006, joined 1950s scoring machine Bob Houbregs as the only Washington players to have their numbers retired in the 107-season history of the program.
USC didn’t get within six points of Washington after Dentmon’s crushing play until a 3-pointer by Hackett with 4 seconds left.
DeRozan went 15½ minutes without scoring in the second half, though he did score in double-figures for the 13th consecutive game.
Washington missed 14 of its first 21 shots while USC went on a 9-0 run to take a 23-17 lead in the sloppy first half. DeRozan made four of his first five shots and had 10 points by then.
But the Huskies scored 12 of the next 14 points, five by Quincy Pondexter before a 3-pointer by Venoy Overton put Washington up 29-25 late in the half. Then DeRozan went to the bench with his third foul with 1:24 remaining in the opening period.
USC seemed fortunate to be down only 31-30 at the half, when Hackett swished a 30-footer at the buzzer. Then again, Washington seemed lucky to be up with Brockman and Thomas having just one point each in the opening half.
Trojans coach Tim Floyd ripped off his sports coat early and berated the officials throughout, perhaps with good reason.
Washington was 32-for-40 from the foul line. USC was 13-for-17.
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