SEATTLE — The Washington Huskies men’s basketball team had one nonconference game left. It was against Stony Brook, at home, with a 12-0 record into Pac-12 play on the line.
They led by 16 points in the second half. But once the Seawolves grabbed their first lead of the game, they didn’t let go, leaving the 13th-ranked Huskies stunned after a 62-57 loss.
“Mentally, we weren’t there,” said UW coach Lorenzo Romar. “And with so much at stake, you wonder why not.”
Robert Upshaw led the Huskies (11-1) with 11 points off the bench. Their starting backcourt — Nigel Williams-Goss and Andrew Andrews — combined to make 8 of 26 shots (31 percent). Jernard Jarreau made 1 of 6.
The Huskies didn’t make a shot from the field the final 6:38 of the game.
“We got to play hard for 48 minutes,” said Andrews, who finished with seven points. “We played hard only in spurts and that came back to bite us.”
The Huskies were hoping to head to Cal (7 p.m., Friday, Pac-12 Networks) with their best start since 1975-76.
Stony Brook (8-6) is favored to win the America East this year, but weren’t expected to contend with a hot Huskies squad coming off wins over then-13th-ranked San Diego St. and No. 15 Oklahoma among others.
UW took a 47-31 lead with 14:36 to play in the second half, but Stony Brook slowly pulled its way back. The Huskies surrendered open 3-pointer after open 3 in the second half, with Kameron Mitchell connecting on 4 of 5.
Mitchell scored all of his 12 points from the 3-point line, and all off the bench. Jameel Warney, who had 15 points and eight rebounds, frequently found him from the post after Mitchell didn’t attempt a shot in the first half.
His fourth 3 cut the Huskies’ lead to 55-52 with 3:51 left.
“We didn’t do a good job of knowing where he was,” Romar said. “He was a guy we talked about. We talked about that he had a slow release … but if he got it off he could knock it down. Unfortunately in the second half he got it off.”
Mitchell finally missed — an open 3 in the corner — that would have tied it at 57, but the Huskies never ended their offensive funk. And Carson Puriefoy responded with a 3 tied it with 1:08 to play.
Still, Washington matched the 2005-06 team with 11 consecutive wins to start the season. And looking back, Romar said he is still happy having gone 11-1 in nonconference play.
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