By John Sleeper
Herald Writer
SEATTLE – If Thursday night is any indication, the kids are finally starting to figure it out.
The University of Washington men’s basketball team snapped a six-game losing streak, broke into the win column in Pacific-10 Conference play and finally started to show what all the preseason fuss was about in an 81-68 victory over Arizona State.
The Huskies, reeling from a disastrous road trip against the Los Angeles schools that left them with an 0-4 conference mark, roared out of the gate and took the game to the Sun Devils from the start before 5,448 at Hec Edmundson Pavilion.
Point guard Curtis Allen dished out a career-high 15 assists, a total that tied for second in school history. Chester Dorsey had 15 on Feb. 22, 1975 against UCLA. Rafael Stone has the school record, 16, against Cal on Feb. 20, 1970.
“When we’re all on the same page,” said Allen, who also had four steals, “we’re a real good team.”
Forward Doug Wrenn led the hot-shooting Huskies (1-4 Pac-10 play, 7-8 overall) with 23 points and spearheaded a fast UW start, sorely needed because of damaged confidence from the 0-4 conference beginning.
Wrenn scored eight of the Huskies’ first 10 points, and Washington eventually built a 23-11 lead with 11:14 remaining in the half. The Huskies converted 10 of their first 12 shots, scored 13 of the game’s first 15 points and shot 61 percent for the half (17-for-28), while ASU was hitting about a third of its attempts.
The quick start was the best possible scenario for Washington.
“We were getting points going to the basket. We were getting good defensive stops,” UW coach Bob Bender said. “Who we are and who we have to be to win games was evidenced from the very beginning tonight and we sustained it. That was what we needed.”
The Huskies led the Sun Devils (2-3, 9-5) by 12 points early in the second half. But ASU, behind center Chad Prewitt (24 points, eight rebounds) whittled the deficit to 69-65 with 2:51 remaining in the game.
It was at that point when the game could have gone either way. And with six new players in the UW’s regular rotation, including two freshmen, an ASU comeback wasn’t out of the realm of possibility.
Washington, however, scored the next six points to put the game away. Erroll Knight, who finished with 19 points on 8-for-10 shooting, hit a layup. Allen sank one of two free throws and Knight followed with a spectacular reverse slam dunk. Sterling Brown then hit a free throw to give the Huskies a 75-65 lead with 36.9 seconds remaining.
“We looked like a team that’s been playing together for a while,” Wrenn said.
Washington’s defense was as responsible for the win as anything. The Sun Devils shot just 32 percent from the floor, mostly because Washington challenged every shot. The Huskies blocked 10 shots, led by center David Dixon’s six, one off the school record he set last Nov. 24 against Santa Clara.
“We just came out a lot hungrier,” Allen said. “We were hungry for a win, and we came out fast at the jump. We needed this.”
Also for the Huskies, Grant Leep finished with 17 points on 7-for-10 shooting. Guard Curtis Millage added 15 points for the Sun Devils.
Short tips: In ASU coach Rob Evans’ 272 career games, the Huskies became just the third team to shoot 60 percent from the floor. Washington’s 30-for-50 performance for the game was the highest since it converted 67.3 percent of its attempts Feb. 6, 1999, against ASU … Washington’s 22 assists and nine steals were both season highs. The previous assist high was 17 against UNLV; the previous high for steals was eight against St. Louis … Allen reached his career-high assist total of eight by halftime.
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