The UW women hope good finish continues

  • By Scott M. Johnson Herald Writer
  • Wednesday, March 10, 2010 11:31pm
  • SportsSports

To say that the University of Washington women’s basketball team is rolling into its opening game of the Pac-10 tournament would be a bit of a stretch.

But at least this time around, the Huskies aren’t crawling.

UW’s current three-game winning streak is a huge improvement over the 2-15 record the Huskies posted over the two-month stretch leading into last year’s conference tournament. Combined with Tuesday’s news that head coach Tia Jackson would be back next season and a first-round opponent that UW has already beaten twice, and the Huskies (12-16) have plenty of reasons for excitement right about now.

“It’s really exciting, especially because of the way we finished out” the regular season, said senior Sami Whitcomb, who may well be playing her final game when the seventh-seeded Huskies face last-place Oregon State (10-19) tonight. “I really think we’re starting to play our best basketball right now and figuring things out. I’m really excited about the possibilities that we have with the Pac-10 tournament.”

Despite wins over Washington State, Oregon State and Oregon to close out the regular season, the Huskies probably have pretty limited possibilities this week. If UW gets past the last-place Beavers tonight, No. 2 seed UCLA awaits in the quarterfinals, and the Bruins swept the Huskies during the regular season. Tournament host USC is the most likely semifinal opponent, and national No. 2 Stanford is almost certain to be in the finals.

UW has never had a lot of success in Pac-10 tournament games, with a 5-8 overall record since the conference tournament began in 2002. The Huskies have never won more than one game in the tournament.

This year’s team isn’t likely to make history, but UW is certainly peaking at the right time. A renewed focus on defense, the emergence of several underclassmen and a lack of quality opponents helped the Huskies end a six-game skid and rattle off three wins in a row.

Jackson is most impressed with the way UW has played defense as of late. During the three-game winning streak, the Huskies have held opponents to 52 points per game and 33.1 percent shooting while forcing an average of 18.3 turnovers per contest.

“We’re going in really fired up and excited about our defensive focus,” Jackson said. “We’re going to take the emphasis we’ve had these last three games and carry it over.”

The Huskies have also gotten more of a balanced attack on offense. After relying heavily on Whitcomb to carry the scoring load for most of the season — she led the team in scoring in 10 of its first 19 games but has done it only once since — UW has plenty of options as of late.

Sophomore Kristi Kingma seems to have shaken the injury bug, and she’s been the Huskies’ most consistent scorer over the last month. Six-foot-3 post Regina Rogers has shed 30 pounds and is playing extended minutes, helping her average a team-high 15.7 points per outing during the three-game winning streak. And junior point guard Sarah Morton, who shot 32.8 percent and averaged 5.4 points per game through 25 games, has shot 53.3 percent and averaged 8.3 points over the past three.

“Being in attack mode all the time is definitely what Coach J (Jackson) has told me to be aware of,” Morton said. “Going to the hole and looking for my shot is only going to open things up (for teammates).”

After going through a horrific run that included 10 losses in 11 games, and left Jackson’s future in doubt, the Huskies turned things around to finish their regular season on a high note.

“We really started to finally learn from our losses and our mistakes that we made, and improve on that instead of repeating them,” Whitcomb said. “That was the biggest thing for us. Mentally, we’re determined to win instead of hopeful (to win).”

If UW is determined to make a run in this week’s Pac-10 tournament, at least the Huskies have momentum on their side.

“It’s definitely a good time,” Morton said. “We’re playing well, we’ve got some momentum, and so we’re excited for these Pac-10 (tournament) games.”

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