SEATTLE — Another second-half explosion from Terrence Ross brought the University of Washington fans out of their seats Thursday night.
But it was his teammate, Aziz N’Diaye, who was at the center of a postgame celebration following the Huskies’ dramatic, 71-69 victory over UCLA.
Ross scored 10 of his team-high 22 points in the final 4:41, helping UW overcome a 10-point, second-half deficit, but it was the workmanlike effort of N’Diaye that had as much to do with Thursday night’s win over the Bruins.
The 7-foot junior played almost the entire the final 71⁄2 minutes with four fouls, yet somehow bottled up the unstoppable Joshua Smith at the back of a 2-3 zone to help the Huskies complete their comeback.
“Aziz did an amazing job tonight. He played like a grown man tonight,” said freshman Austin Seferian-Jenkins, one of two UW teammates who sprinted out to midcourt to pile on N’Diaye when the buzzer sounded Thursday night. “… Terrence made the great shots, and I felt like Aziz played the great defense. Those two really carried us.”
In a nationally-televised game that may well have boosted the reputation of the snake-bitten Pacific-12 Conference, the Huskies and Bruins put on quite a show before UW (15-7 overall, 8-2 in the Pac-12) closed out strong without its leading scorer.
With Tony Wroten Jr. sitting on the bench for the final 8:36 — due in part to a charley horse he suffered in the first half but also because he was struggling with turnovers and lackluster defense — the Huskies outscored UCLA 18-6 down the stretch to extend their winning streak to four games and take sole possession of first place in the Pac-12.
“We dodged a bullet,” UW senior Darnell Gant said. “We’re playing for a Pac-12 championship, and we don’t want to be looking back in the summer saying what-if.”
UW had to overcome a career game from Smith, a 6-foot-10 former Kentwood High School star who plowed through Huskies for most of the night. Smith hit a career high with 21 points over the opening 27:15 but got slowed down by UW’s zone and N’Diaye’s size in the end.
“It wasn’t easy because of how a big guy like Josh uses his body,” said N’Diaye, who was whistled for his fourth foul with 7:51 remaining but stayed in for the remainder of the game. “But the game was on the line, and I just had to do my job. We needed to get stops.”
UCLA led 63-53 with 7:01 remaining before the Huskies came together and finished off the Bruins (12-10, 5-5).
“We had a will to win,” junior Abdul Gaddy said. “We started getting some stops, and we went to our guy, Terrence Ross. He carried us.”
Ross, who had just four points at halftime, turned in another stellar second-half performance. He scored 10 of his 18 second-half points in the final 4:41, most of it coming during a 13-0 run that put UW in front 68-65 with 2:05 remaining.
UCLA pulled to within one with 1:39 remaining, but Ross responded with another 3-pointer 19 seconds later. After a Smith putback with 56 seconds left — his only field goal of the final 12 minutes — UCLA was within two points. Ross missed a 12-footer, then the Bruins had one last chance but came up short when Norman Powell’s 10-foot shot from the baseline bounced off the rim in the final seconds.
A surprisingly entertaining first half was dominated by the big guys, with UW going into the break leading 35-34 after a Ross bank shot in the closing seconds. Ross, Wroten and C.J. Wilcox combined for 11 points at the half, while UW big men Gant, N’Diaye and a surprisingly effective Shawn Kemp Jr. had 18.
But the Huskies had no answer for Smith, who overpowered Kemp and Seferian-Jenkins, a 260-pound football player, on the way to 14 points at the half.
“I’ve said it before about Josh: it’s like trying to stop the van when it’s going downhill,” UW coach Lorenzo Romar said afterward.
Neither team was able to put together much of a run during the first half, which featured a largest lead of just five points. The Huskies took a 28-24 lead with 6:17 remaining in the half, and 14 minutes passed before either team led by four again.
The first eight minutes of the second half included three lead changes and four ties before UCLA used some hot 3-point shooting to pull out to a 10-point lead.
Gaddy said the Huskies were snapping at each other for much of the second half but that they came together down the stretch.
What made the final eight minutes even more interesting was that Wroten watched from the bench as the Huskies kept the same five players on the floor. While Romar said that the effectiveness of Wilcox was the main reason for keeping Wroten on the bench, Wroten himself said an injured right thigh was limiting his ability to play defense.
“It’s definitely hard,” Wroten said of sitting on the bench down the stretch, “but I knew I wasn’t helping my team by not being at full (strength). Coach Romar told me: ‘You’re an injured guy.’ I couldn’t play defense like I usually do. I was hurting.”
The big question now is whether Wroten will be available for Saturday night’s home game against USC.
“It’s 50-50 right now,” Wroten said late Thursday night, about an hour after the conclusion of the game. “I’m not sure if I’ll be able to play or not. I definitely want to, but I don’t want to be out there hurting my team.”
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