It was quite a win for Washington, which showed how different a team it is playing at home as opposed to the road. The Huskies were confident, emotional and aggressive and outworked Oregon to get the win. The hope is that with five of seven games at home, Washington is able to build some confidence that will perhaps carry over to the road, where it is 0-6.
Leading the way was Justin Dentmon, who had maybe the best game of his career. Dentmon scored a career-high 24 points, had six rebounds, seven assists and three steals. He also had six turnovers but they seemed to come in waves and overall he looked to be a different player than the one who last played at Hec Ed three weeks ago. Dentmon said he had a talk with assistant coach Cameron Dollar, who told him he had to start creating for his teammates as well as himself. That may have taken some pressure off of Dentmon, who seemed to be thinking he had to do everything on his own.
Jon Brockman and Spencer Hawes also had big games, especially in the second half. Brockman had 14 points and eight rebounds and made all six of his free throws down the stretch. Hawes was 7-for-10 for 15 points. Despite his big game, Romar said Hawes would likely not start against Oregon State, with Artem Wallace remaining the starter, saying that Hawes just hasn’t practiced enough. He compared it to two years ago when Brandon Roy missed practice time with his knee injury so he came off the bench but still played 30 minutes a game.
Ryan Appleby was also good, scoring 16 points and making four 3-pointers.
The Huskies still had some trouble closing down on Oregon’s shooters but kept the Ducks off the boards, outrebounding them 33-22 and only giving up four offensive rebounds. Oregon clearly missed Aaron Brooks as the Ducks made some costly ball-handling mistakes down the stretch, but coach Ernie Kent said much of Oregon’s problems Thursday – blocking out and helpside defense – are not things that Brooks is responsible for.
Lorenzo Romar was asked if he thought his technical foul midway through the second half sparked his team. He said “I never like to get technical fouls, but…”, indicating that it may not have been bad timing. Clearly it wasn’t, as the Huskies outscored Oregon 26-12 from that point on.
None of the Huskies would definitively say if this game was that “click” game Romar has been looking for, but they agreed that it is headed in that direction, and if Washington beats Oregon State Saturday, then they might say this is when they started to click.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
