SEATTLE — Let the record show that Washington State University was the first opponent to figure out a way to take the home crowd out of a University of Washington men’s basketball game on Saturday afternoon.
And then the smack-talking, chest-pounding Cougars found out a way to get the fans back into it.
After a rare slow start at Hec Edmondson Pavilion, UW fed off some fuel that was doused onto the cross-state rivalry, blowing out the Cougars in the second half for a 92-64 victory over the Cougars.
The Huskies (14-7 overall, 4-5 in the Pac-10) rallied from an early 11-point deficit, outscored the Cougars 19-2 to start the second half, and were the only ones with much to say afterward.
“Definitely, how confident they came in got us fired up,” UW junior Venoy Overton said after the Huskies outscored WSU 56-24 in the second half of Saturday’s game. “They came in cocky, in our house, popping their jerseys, and they played more aggressive in the first half. That kind of turned us, and we just started going.”
It was a rare off night for WSU star Klay Thompson, who scored just seven points on 2-of-15 shooting after being taken out of the starting lineup for disciplinary reasons. His high-scoring counterpart, UW’s Quincy Pondexter, had 29 points to lead the Huskies.
But the most important scoring outburst came from Huskies teammate Isaiah Thomas, who scored 11 of his 19 points during the pivotal first eight minutes of the second half. His third 3-pointer in just over two minutes gave UW a 58-44 lead with 12:20 remaining, and the game would never be close again.
“He got some open looks,” head coach Lorenzo Romar said of Thomas, who sat out Tuesday’s win over Seattle University because of a stomach virus. “After he knocked a couple down, it was like: ‘OK, that sickness that I had last week, it’s over. I’m back.’ And he hit some big shots for us.”
With Thompson on the bench because he missed the team bus Friday, the Cougars scored the first five points of the game and jumped out to a 14-3 lead. Nikola Koprivica hit a pair of 3’s as the UW fan base was frozen by a state of shock.
But as the Huskies started to chip away, and the two teams started to chip at each other, the arena got as loud as it has been all season. Things finally came to a head between the rivals when Pondexter and WSU’s Xavier Thames got tied up after a whistle with five minutes to go in the first half. They were called for a double technical, and the intensity of the game only grew from there.
Pondexter’s free throw tied the score at 28, and nearly every basket for the rest of the half was followed by trash talk or a drawn-out stare at an opponent. When WSU’s Reggie Moore made a steal and dunk, he flexed his muscles and scowled at the UW bench.
After the game, UW’s Pondexter said that Moore’s dunk celebration helped get the Huskies going.
“Young freshman,” Pondexter said. “Unless you’re LeBron James, I wouldn’t advise that to add motivation to another team _ especially at their home. It’s something you learn.”
A few minutes after the Moore dunk, Thames appeared to throw Pondexter to the floor but was not whistled for a foul. Thames then buried a jumper over Pondexter to give WSU a 40-36 halftime lead, and UW’s Overton exchanged words with the Cougars’ James Watson as the two teams headed into the locker room.
Said Romar of the Cougars’ animated displays in the first half: “We noticed.”
And the Huskies did something about it. While WSU missed its first 13 shots after halftime, UW went on a 19-2 run to take a 55-42 lead. Thomas, who had a quiet first half while recovering from his bout with the stomach flu, hit three 3-pointers in a span of two minutes to help the Huskies pull away.
UW’s lead got as big as 29 points during the second half. When WSU sophomore Marcus Capers made a thunderous dunk with 7:21 remaining, the Cougars (14-7, 4-5) had run out of boisterous displays of emotion toward the UW bench.
“We weren’t going to back down from anybody,” Thames said, shrugging off the notion that the Cougars had lit a fire under UW. “I don’t think it was anything like that. They just came out more aggressive than us (in the second half).”
WSU coach Ken Bone called the second half “a disaster,” adding that it was “frustrating to watch.”
It was a particularly rough night for WSU’s leading scorer. Thompson missed his first seven field-goal attempts, one of his first 12, and was held to single digits for the first time this season.
“It wasn’t fun,” said Thompson, who entered the game as the sixth-leading scorer in the country. “I just didn’t make shots when I was wide open.”
Thames led the Cougars with 15 points, while Koprivica and Moore each added 13.
The heated rivalry was only part of the story in a game played between two teams that were trying to stay in the thick of a compact Pac-10 Conference. The Huskies were able to match WSU’s 4-5 conference record, moving into a five-way tie for fifth place at the midway point of the Pac-10 season.
The goal of defending their conference title has not gotten away from the Huskies quite yet.
“We have the potential,” Romar said, “but we have to do it. We’ve strung together some pretty good performances at home. We’ve got to be able to continue to do that and then parlay that to the road.”
Pondexter said that, despite UW’s mediocre record, he won’t settle for anything short of a trip to the big dance.
“When I decided to come back this year, it was really key to lead this team to the NCAA tournament,” the senior said. “I really don’t want to let anyone down. By not making it to the NCAA tournament, I would feel it’s on my shoulders. I would be devastated.
“… We’ve had our ups and downs, but we are a pretty darn good basketball team. And we’ve got to play that way this second half of the Pac-10 (schedule).”
Notes
The crowd included Portland Trail Blazers star Brandon Roy, who sat directly behind the UW bench, and Snohomish High School boys basketball coach Len Bone, who sat behind the WSU bench while watching his brother coach the Cougars. … Archbishop Murphy graduate Brendan Sherrer, a walk-on at UW, scored his second career basket with a short hook shot off the glass with 41 seconds left. Sherrer has scored in each of the past two games, both blowout wins. … Edmonds native Charlie Enquist played four minutes for the Cougars and scored two points on a pair of free throws. … The Huskies wore black uniforms as part of a “Slam Cancer” campaign designed to raise money for cancer research. It was the first time UW wore black jerseys.
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